Forsyth County commissioners vote to cancel plans to build mental health crisis center

The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to scuttle plans to build a mental health center in the county, instead redirecting the federal funds earmarked for the project to pay for infrastructure items instead.

According to commissioners during the Tuesday meeting, millions of dollars in American Rescue Plan Act funds had been assigned to pay for a county mental health facility, but commissioners voted to cancel the project and reassign the funds.

Instead of paying for the creation of a mental health center, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners voted to use the funding to pay for what they said were critical infrastructure costs.

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During the discussion of whether or not to cancel the facility construction, commissioners weighed whether it was the county’s responsibility to build and maintain the site, or if it was the responsibility of the State of Georgia instead.

“We’re talking about a state facility, and the state’s gonna put a facility where they believe a facility should be, and they have not come forward to try to gap fill even on this project because ideally, this is not where they want it,” Commissioner Lauren Semanson said.

“I think we’re trying to, I also think that our taxpayers have already given money to the state to build these facilities. The state has our money already,” Commissioner Kerry Hill said, adding that the state should be the party to build the facility and that Forsyth County taxpayers should not be the ones “footing the bill for something that is the state’s role to pay for.”

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However, other commissioners pushed back on comments that the state wasn’t involved in the process or had no interest in the project.

So far, the county has already spent about $3 million on the project, which Mills said was spent without much sense.

Commission Chair Alfred John said he’d asked repeatedly about the project and that his questions about transparency and spending had not been answered.

While mental health services were a necessary item to fund in the county, Hill reiterated that it was still up to the state to build and operate a state-run health facility, though county-level programs were something that could be considered separately.

Mills remained focused on helping children in need of mental health services, saying that the county needed its own local facilities and programs, rather than having Forsyth County children sent to other areas for treatment.

The motion to redirect the funding from ARPA passed 4-to-1 and commissioners moved on.

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