The Florida Care Day Training Center is planning to move to a new 8,500-square-foot facility at the corner of North Montgomery Street and Womack Road.
Florida Care offers classes in horticulture, light woodworking, laundry, housekeeping, arts and crafts and daily living skills to clients who have some form of mental or physical disability. The company has been located at 1417 Highway 389 since 1993, but has outgrown the facility.
Florida Care Properties Inc. has submitted to the city a conditional use request to build a new training center in the C-1 neighborhood commercial zone at the northwest corner of North Montgomery Street and Womack Road. The Starkville planning and zoning commission tonight will review the plans and make a recommendation to the city”s Board of Aldermen on whether or not to approve the conditional use request for the .93-acre property.
The building to the immediate north of the proposed site is called “Angel Gardens” and initially was built for mentally challenged children. Over the years, those same children have reached adulthood and now attend training classes at Florida Care.
The building to the immediate west of the proposed site is called “Parker House” and is a group home where clients are not necessarily mentally challenged, but are physically handicapped and usually wheelchair-bound.
Further east is the Rolling Hills facility, which is commonly referred to as a nursing home, but really is an intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded. A majority of Florida Care”s clients live at Rolling Hills, while the remainder live in Angel Gardens or Parker House.
“In summary, all of Florida Care”s clients live at one of these three buildings and it is easily understood how much more convenient it would be for them to attend class at the proposed location,” City Planning Ben Griffith said in his report to the planning and zoning commission.
Florida Care serves approximately 75 clients per day, but expects that number to increase to around 100 at the new facility. The maximum number of employees on any shift varies between 15 and 20.
The planning and zoning commission meets today at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.