Month: July 2022

The Buffalo News (Jul 26, 2022) — BestSelf Behavioral Health has landed millions in state funding to develop an intensive crisis stabilization center in Buffalo – part of a comprehensive crisis response system New York is forming.

The center, and others like it around the state, are geared toward helping any person experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis, aiming to divert them away from unnecessary emergency room visits. The 24/7 centers will provide evaluation, care and treatment. 

“This is a new program type that’s coming to our community,” BestSelf President and CEO Elizabeth Woike-Ganga said. “This is probably the only time that this opportunity will come along. So I think we just felt at BestSelf that we’re really well placed to start up and support a community-based program like this, based on all the other work that we’ve been doing in the community for so long.”

The state called for proposals for the intensive centers in late January and announced the winners July 19. The state did not disclose how many applicants there were in the five-county Western New York region.

The funds

BestSelf will get state funding of $8.7 million over five years. Here’s how that breaks down:

• In the first year, tentatively slated to start in January, BestSelf is in line for $1.67 million in startup funds, along with $1.4 million in operational funding. 

• Operational funding also will be $1.4 million annually in years two through five. 

On top of that, BestSelf says early estimates indicate Medicaid reimbursements will be about $2.7 million annually.

That will further grow BestSelf’s annual operating budget of around $100 million.

Related to the intensive center award, BestSelf will be eligible to apply for $1 million in capital funding to get its building ready.

The location

BestSelf will develop the intensive crisis stabilization center at an existing location: 430 Niagara St. in Buffalo, across from a Tops store and a couple blocks from the I-190.

The target opening date for the intensive center is January, though it will depend on several factors, such as what renovations are needed for the building.

“We’re looking at, ‘Are we going to add space or, kind of, how are we going to make that work?’ ” Woike-Ganga said. “Space-wise, we started looking at that already. We will have to do some alterations to the space.”

She also anticipates some of that location’s programs may have to be moved around as they prepare for the rollout.

Hiring

BestSelf has grown its organization to more than 1,300 employees, and that will soon increase.

With the state award for the intensive center, Woike-Ganga said BestSelf expects to add 43 new positions, including physicians, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, mental health counselors and substance abuse counselors.

That won’t be easy. The behavioral health sector is facing hiring challenges, but Woike-Ganga anticipates that prospective employees will be interested in the “exciting and really needed project.”

“We do anticipate that there’ll be a lot of interest from the community in the project, and also folks wanting to come on board and do this kind of work,” she said.

How it will work

The center, which will work in concert with other parts of the crisis response system New York is developing, will be for anyone who is experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.

“We’ll triage them and assess what’s going on,” Woike-Ganga said. “Is it a situation where someone needs to talk to a counselor or peer? Is it something where someone has maybe run out of medications and needs a refill? Or is it, for example, a substance use disorder issue where they need medication-assisted treatment for an opioid use issue?”

The center will have the capacity to administer medication. Its professionals also will assess whether a patient is an immediate danger to themselves or others, in which case they would be taken to a psychiatric emergency department.

The overall goal is to make sure a patient is treated in the appropriate setting, fitting into a larger health care trend.

view full story at: https://buffalonews.com

After championing the project for 15 years, Watertown Town Supervisor Joel R. Bartlett’s effort is paying off with a planned $80 million event center off Route 3.

Mr. Bartlett and the Watertown Local Development Corp. are working with OVG Facilities, a $10 billion developer and operator of sports facilities around the world, a firm headed by Michael F. Sherman, former head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers, and Seahawks Hockey Premier Hockey Club, a hockey club and academy in Cape Cod.

The developers said they are moving ahead with the 520,000-square-foot multi-use indoor facility.

The Thousand Islands Event Center will provide state-of-the-art space for a complete range of sports, recreation, entertainment and special events serving the north country, the Thousand Islands and southern Ontario, the developers said.

“This might well put us finally on the map,” Mr. Bartlett said.

They are seeking $30 million in financing from the state.

Working with Upstate Strategic Advisors, a governmental affairs consultant, they’ll arrange a meeting in the next couple of weeks with Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul to secure state funding.

They’re confident that the state will come through with financial aid for the project they say will benefit the Thousand Islands tourism industry and the region’s economy.

Read Full Story at: https://www.nny360.com/communitynews/business/80-million-event-center-proposed-for-town-of-watertown/article_207d0934-8de5-521b-98b2-3925802e761b.html

The group is projecting a Jan. 1, 2024, opening. They’re expecting groundbreaking to be later this summer or early fall.

Located near the Board of Cooperative Educational Services complex, the land is owned by the Watertown Local Development Corp., which will lease it to OVG Facilities and Mike Sherman Sports, or MS2, an athletics organization that he operates in Cape Cod.

Financing for the project also includes $15 million in private equity and $35 million in taxable bonding. Other funding would come from $5 million in naming rights and a capital campaign.

The events center will have two indoor turf fields, eight basketball courts, 16 volleyball courts, a 220-meter banked indoor track, two National Hockey League-quality sheets of ice and facilities for wrestling, gymnastics and pitching/batting cages.

Describing it as “a top-tier destination for year-round events,” the facility will bring people into the area, plus north country families will no longer have to drive a few hours away to sports tournaments for their children, the partners said.

They project that the facility will attract 250 event days and 305,884 patrons of which 93,554 will need to stay in local hotels.

They also project $142.5 million in visitor spending and $20.1 million in incremental lodging revenues over five years, with the need for an additional 327 hotel rooms in the region.

The event center is “ideally located” to serve a primary radius of 60 miles, a secondary market of 90 miles and people as far as 120 miles away, according to the developers.

The group envisions hosting college hockey tournaments with all of the nation’s top teams. The facility also will be used for the adult sports market.

The facility will also feature a 9,000-seat venue for sports, concerts, family shows and other live events. It will accommodate conventions, trade and consumer shows, exhibitions and other events.

The facility will employ 49 positions and 220 construction and short-term jobs.

The three partners are also working with Yaeger Architects, Lenexa, Kansas, on facility design; Arizona Building Systems, St. Louis, Missouri, for engineering; and Upstate Strategic Advisors, Buffalo, on governmental affairs.