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News & Features
From the Idyllwild Town Crier weekly newspaper, 11.20.08 edition.
Anza finalist for center
By Marshall Smith, Correspondent
The California Area Indian Health Service (IHS), part of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, has settled on Anza as the
site for a $16 million inpatient treatment center for alcohol- and
drug-addicted American Indian/Alaska native youth, ages 12 to 17. The
proposed 40,000-square-foot, 32-bed facility would have an annual
operating budget of $4 million and employ 70 professionals, 25 percent
of those certified health care professionals, and 75 percent skilled
service workers.
According to Gary Ball, facilities architect, one of the presenters at
the Nov. 12 Anza Valley Municipal Advisory Council (AVMAC) meeting, the
facility would be built with the latest green technologies and make
minimal demands on the precarious Anza Valley water table. The entire
facility is projected to have the equivalent environmental impact of
eight occupied houses.
IHS Chief Medical Officer and Youth Regional Treatment Center Task
Force Coordinator Capt. David Sprenger, M.D., spoke of the site
selection process that evaluated and rated 10 Southern California
sites. Anza initially finished second to Hemet in the search, based
primarily on Hemet’s proximity to Ontario International Airport. But
after further analysis, IHS ruled out the Hemet site because it had a
long, unpaved access road.
Sprenger noted that in many ways Anza is better suited than Hemet as a
site for the center. “Anza is a natural, serene environment that would
be conducive to the work the center is designed to conduct,” said
Sprenger. He said that if the community, Riverside County Board of
Supervisors, and the current owners of the 40-acre proposed site
approves it, the treatment center could be up and running in 2012.
“The purpose of a treatment center such as this, for teenagers,
is to conduct an early intervention in the lives of these young people,
to stop any further progression into addiction as adults,” Sprenger
said. “Problems of drug and alcohol addiction tear the fabric of a
community apart.” He explained that teenagers would stay for three to
six months, and receive individual and group therapy. “This will be a
place of healing, not a detention center. Kids are here voluntarily.”
Sprenger said the next step is to obtain an accepted offer on the
property, something he thought would occur within the next several
weeks. Following that, IHS will search the title, do an environmental
impact study, and petition the county for a zoning change.
Council Member Gordon Lanik, speaking as a private citizen, not on
behalf of AVMAC, expressed an initial positive reaction to the project.
Lanik cited jobs the center could provide the economically stressed
Anza Valley.
Council Chair Tulvio Durand reminded IHS presenters and the meeting
audience that AVMAC is not a decision-making body, but functions as the
eyes and ears of 3rd District Supervisor Jeff Stone. It will take in
feedback from the community regarding the proposed IHS center.
Durand asked if the young people would pose any danger to the
community. Sprenger answered that, to be admitted, patients could not
be violent or pose risk to other kids or staff.
An audience member questioned whether hiring a 70-person workforce is
subject to any federal hiring preferences. Sprenger said there are two
— one for Native Americans, and the other for veterans. “First
preference in hiring would go to either of these groups, but if there
are no qualified applicants from either, then hiring would be opened to
all,” he said.
One audience member wondered why the center could not be built on
reservation land, since reservation land directly borders the proposed
parcel on Cary Road. Sprenger said the facility is a U.S. government
facility, that tribal lands are sovereign, and that the process of
putting independent tribal lands into a U.S. government trust and
acquiring the land for a center such as this is a complicated one.
“The federal government prefers to hold a free and clear land title
rather than a title in trust,” said Sprenger. A representative of one
of four attending tribes explained that tribes hold apportioned land
interests in reservation land — land designed to support the well-being
and sustenance of a holding family for generations to come, making
holding families reluctant to part with allotted land.
IHS provides a comprehensive health delivery system for about 1.9
million of the nation’s estimated 3.3 million American Indians and
Alaska natives. Its annual appropriation is about $3.35 billion. Youth
treatment centers are designed to stem the disproportionately high
death rates among Indian populations from alcoholism, diabetes,
homicide and suicide.
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