Detox center plan resurrected

An effort to build a detoxification center for the Pikes Peak region was resurrected Thursday after area hospitals committed the $570,000 needed for the project.

"I'm pretty confident now we can move forward and it will work," said El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa, who is spearheading the effort to set aside 40 beds of a planned detention center for a detox program.

In e-mailed news releases, Memorial Health System and Penrose-St. Francis Health Services said their boards had authorized their participation in the plan. Memorial will contribute $400,000 a year and Penrose $170,000.

It was a different story earlier this week, when Maketa scolded executives at Memorial and Penrose-St. Francis for delays that he said threatened to derail the effort. He'd originally asked for the hospitals' financial pledges by no later than Monday. The hospitals contend they moved as quickly as possible to get the commitments, given the scope of the contributions.

Although Maketa had authorized construction plans to move forward on the detention center without the detox component earlier this week, he said Thursday the commitments appear to have come soon enough to reverse course.

Maketa said efforts to hire detox workers will begin immediately.

Colorado Springs lost its only detox center when Pikes Peak Mental Health ended its program at The Lighthouse Assessment Center in February.

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Staff writer Pam Zubeck contributed to this report.