Keeler Heather

Clay County Commission

Dan Haglund

Minnesota State Rep. Heather Keeler, DFL-Dist. 4A, stopped by the Clay County Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday in Moorhead to give an update on the plans and funding for the planned Psychiatric Regional Treatment Facility (PRTF).
Preliminary estimates in February slated the full building cost in Moorhead at between $15 and $25 million.
And until very recently, the hope was that $10 million of that would come through a state bonding bill.
But as bills move quickly in St. Paul, so also can the hopes of bonding monies be dashed.
Keeler first thanked the board for its willingness and availability to help with moving this particular project along.
Keeler said the original plan was to wait until 2026 and request the full amount, but because of a grant which has come about through the work of Clay County Social Services director Rhonda Porter, things moved along quicker than expected.
She said since the timeframe moved quicker, the idea of requesting $10 million (for Phase 1 of the PRTF) in a bonding bill this year seemed appropriate. But with the small targets in bonding this year, that plan is not panning out as yet.
“How it worked out is that if we would have taken a smaller lump of bonding money,” Keeler said, “we would have had to be able to offset the rest of the ask (dollars) to even unlock the state money.”
Keeler said new ideas had to be generated quickly in this community at smaller dollar amounts. She said one idea that popped up is the remodel of the local detention center for females, and is a project that is ready and needed.
“It is hard to shift when we’ve spent so much time, especially when it comes to talking about this high-level need around mental health,” Keeler said. “With not only our (Clay County) kids, but I think we are almost up to 23 counties that are supporting this and three tribal nations. And so this is really a regional ask.”
Keeler said perhaps finding other financial partners (for the PRTF) are not out of the question, but she will need to see if it’s necessary when the time comes.
Commissioner Jenny Mongeau, Dist. 3, reiterated Keeler’s frustration.
“When (Keeler) talks about things moving very quickly, the presentation today really had changed in the last four or five days because of the speed at which the Legislature moves,” Mongeau said. “I appreciate the thoughtful, painful realization that we came to in regards to the funding component for this year for the PRTF.”
Commissioner Kevin Campbell, Dist. 4, wanted to add a bit of clarification to the usage intent of the upcoming facility.
“This is a regional juvenile center for the secure unit of the facility,” Campbell said. “The non-secure part and the unit we’re talking about here is not a regional facility, it’s for Clay County. I just think we need to be all on the same page. However, we do have the ability to offer those services to outside counties, provided we have space available.”
Commissioner David Ebinger, Dist. 5, passed along his appreciation to Keeler for her diligence in this project as well.
“This is really a great opportunity, you’ve helped us make lemonade out of lemons,” Ebinger said. “I think going back to plan A (to request the full funding in 2026) is not that big of a problem. We planned on initiating it this year, and try to get on the tour, do all the things you try to do for funding, and we took a shot at having it happen quicker. The response in this region is phenomenal, as you well know. It shows an incredible need.”