By JIMMY LAWTON

OGDENSBURG – The Office of Mental Health’s plan to downsize the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center is “no good”, according task force chairman Chuck Kelly.

“I’m a simple North Country boy and may be I am missing something, but I don’t think it’s good at all,” he said of the state plan released today.

“I am reading bad things. I see the children’s unit is going. I see the adult unit is going and I see the sex offender unit is staying. I am disappointed.”

Kelly heads the SLPC task force that has worked for the past few months to keep the facility off the closure list. The group has been contacting legislators and sponsoring letter writing campaigns to illustrate just how important the facility is to St. Lawrence County.

The closures are part of planned changes to the state hospital system. Most services now offered in Ogdensburg will be transferred to a Regional Center of Excellence in Utica and Syracuse.

Kelly said the news from OMH that the psych center would be downsized by cutting inpatient units would not end that fight.

“We are not going anywhere. We feel that hospital has been here for over 100 years taking care of patients and any shortcomings (at SLPC) are from the state of New York, not our employees,” he said.

Kelly said there is still time to convince the state and Gov. Andrew Cuomo that downsizing the facility is a bad idea.

“We are going to keep at it. I wouldn’t be involved if I didn’t think we could have an impact.”

Kelly said the loss of local inpatient units will devastate families in such a remote area.

“The hospital is not going to be totally closed, but if I am a parent and have a child at the psych center that gets transferred to Utica or Syracuse, how am going to be able to do it? It’s terrible.”

Kelly said it’s the patients and their families that will pay the price.

“I see this as a downside. If (OMH) can convince us that this is going to improve the health care and family support we can’t argue with it, but I just don’t see how it can.”

Kelly said he is also concerned about jobs.

“They say there won’t be a reduction in jobs. Well if they keep them, they won’t be here. Employees are going to have to relocate,” he said. “What does that mean for our hospitals? What does that do to our schools?”

Kelly said the task force will speak with OMH Commissioner Kristin Woodlock next week in a phone conference and he and his fellow members will have a lot of questions.

“We are going to ask her and we are going to ask the politicians too. I want to know what the state legislators are going to do. I want to know what the governor is going to do. We want to know what it is all about.”

Kelly encouraged everyone with concerns to continue writing their representatives.

“We are going to keep fighting.”