‘It does not make sense to continue with the operation’

The county Juvenile/Probate Court notified the county commissioners the 15-bed center would close Nov. 15 due to the lack of youth being placed in a residential setting for treatment. The center is used to house males from Miami and other counties that contract for beds.

The commissioners and the court have periodically discussed the future of the center on property donated to county commissioners for use as a children’s home by John K. and Jacob Knoop in 1877. The condition of the building and cost of maintenance along with the declining numbers of youth were among topics.

“I find that no matter how I look at it, that the number of delinquent youth that need residential placement is too low to warrant a facility for their treatment,” Judge W. McGregor Dixon Jr. said in a letter to the commissioners.

“We are now at a point that it does not make sense to continue with the operation,” Dixon added. “This decision does not come easily, as you might imagine, as it will not only have a substantial impact on my employees but also the children and parents that we treat.”

The center c has eight employees including an executive director, case manager, cook and five direct care staff, said J. Andrew Wannemacher, court administrator.

The children’s home was closed in the 1970s, then reopened by the state as the Western Ohio Youth Center in the early 1980s. After that facility closed in 1984, the 1932 building was renovated before reopening in 1987 as a county youth center. The name was changed in 1994 in memory of a former director.

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Past discussions have included comments on what would happen to the property if the county no longer used it for a purpose related to children.

Research was being done on that issue, said Leigh Williams, the commissioners’ clerk/administrator. During previous meetings, the transfer of ownership to Elizabeth Twp. was mentioned though not confirmed

A possible different location for the program was discussed in the past, but the commissioners had no building available.

“Throughout 30 years of existence, the program sought to help boys not only learn that education was important, but their behavior had consequences,” Wannemacher said. “It is with programming, therapy and guidance of staff that the center was able to make a real difference in these youth’s lives.”