LAUREL — Residents are sharing mixed reactions after they learned where in Laurel a new state forensic mental health facility will be built.
Hear their opinions:
“Laurel tends to be a bedroom community of Billings. There’s nothing there that’s not known. And I think that the state wanted it there and wanted it here for that reason," said Bruce McGee, who lives near the chosen site.
The state has made its decision to put it on a 144-acre plot of land along Highway 10 just west of town before the intersection with Golf Course Road.
Reactions to this decision in Laurel remain mixed, and many like McGee and Aaron Easley are indifferent.
“I mean, we’re all our own people. You might have certain issues, but at the end of the day, it’s all just people trying to get better," said Easley, who lives near the property.
“I don’t necessarily know how good it will be for the community, but I don’t know that it will harm our community in any shape, form, or fashion," said McGee.
McGee is also a real-estate broker.
When asked about home values being affected near the property, this is what he had to say:
“It might affect some people in purchasing that wouldn’t otherwise because they have apprehensions... but I don’t think it will do anything to property values. I don’t think it will hurt them," said McGee.
Those at Quality Auto Repair will be next-door neighbors once the facility is built.
Some there say they would hope to see it further away.
“It is just a bit close to town, I’d say. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s not like a prison prison. I don’t have too many quarrels about it," said one of the mechanics, Colton Devries.
And parents with children at Laurel schools really wish it were somewhere else.
“For me personally, just the risk factors of everything. There’s always going to be a risk factor. So, with my daughter still being here in Laurel, it does concern me a little bit," said Casey Mathes, who also works at the shop.
