Guilford County is planning to build a $14.5 million mental health facility near the Guilford County Health and Human Services office to replace the downtown Greensboro mental health services building that the county agreed to sell to the City of Greensboro in September. The new building, which will house mental health administrative services and have a 16-bed unit for mental health patients, is expected to open in about two years.
The new Guilford County mental health center will be on Third St. in Greensboro, in Maple Professional Park, which is near the intersection of Summit Ave. and E. Wendover Ave.
In September, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners voted to sell county-owned land and the building on it at 201 N. Eugene St to the City of Greensboro – which means the county has to find a new home for its mental health services.
The Board of Commissioners has been discussing a new facility in closed sessions recently and, on Thursday, Nov. 15, the board voted to hire the Greensboro firm of Teague, Freyaldenhoven and Freyaldenhoven Architects and Planners, LLC to provide design services for the proposed facility.
Supplemental materials to that move state: “A parcel of land at the Maple Professional Park on Third Street in Greensboro has been identified as a suitable site for the facility. The facility will need to be completed and operational within 24 months of the sale of the current site to the City of Greensboro in order to maintain continuity of mental health services.”
The commissioners held a long closed session at the Nov. 15 meeting at which the new project was likely discussed.
Why are discussions of public infrastructure conducted in closed session?