Kansas is no longer considering Dighton as the site for its new sexual predator reintegration facility.
As the Hutchinson News reports, the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, was considering putting the facility in the former Diamond View Estates assisted-living home.
After the plan was revealed, KDADS officials held a town hall meeting in Dighton to explain plans for the facility and to answer residents’ questions.
Over 300 people attended the meeting, many strongly objecting to locating the facility in the small town, and raised concerns about the site’s proximity to a ballfield.
Dighton Representative, and Kansas Republican House Majority Leader Don Hineman said that about week after the meeting was held, KDADS informed him that Dighton was no longer was being considered as a site for the facility.
KDADs spokesperson, Angela de Rocha, told the Hutch News, “the behavior and statements of residents before, during and after the Dighton event caused concern for the physical safety of our staff and the security/structural integrity of the Diamond View Estates facility itself.”
The growing rehabilitation program needs a new facility somewhere in the state by Jan. 1, 2019.
Dighton is now searching for a new use for the Diamond View Estates building, which became a property of KDADs after the operating body shut down the facility and stopped paying its loans last year.
