Fulton State Hospital’s Energy Control Center and Services Building is the first structure to be finished as part of the hospital’s $211 million rebuild project. Missouri Department of Mental Health Division Director Dr. Rick Gowdy testified about the building this week.
The Biggs Maximum Security Forensic Center is part of the Fulton State Hospital complex.
“And that is the center that is the heart of all of the operations of the (Fulton) facility. It controls the boilers, controls the mechanical, it controls the information systems,” Dr. Gowdy says.
Fulton State Hospital is the oldest state psychiatric hospital west of the Mississippi River. It was built in 1851. Gowdy told Missouri lawmakers about the project’s timeline.
“On schedule, on time, and on budget so far. Looking at completion in the fall and the winter of ’18,” Gowdy says.
The Department says the final building to be demolished will be the maximum-security Biggs Forensic Center, after patients have moved into the new facility. Gowdy told lawmakers Biggs currently has about 200 patients.
Biggs is the state’s only maximum-security psychiatric facility.
Gowdy testified Wednesday before the Missouri House Appropriations Committee on Health, Mental Health and Social Services, which is chaired by State Rep. Marsha Haefner, R-Oakville.
Missouri state lawmakers approved Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) plan to replace Fulton State Hospital in 2014. Support was bipartisan.
