As Addiction Recovery Care (ARC) works to revitalize lives chained down by addiction, company leaders are looking for ways to repurpose buildings that once housed hundreds of jobs. 

The Daily Independent reported Monday, Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital (OLBH) closed nearly one year ago, as Kentuckians were beginning to wrap their heads around the impact of COVID-19. Meanwhile, ARC was at the forefront of developing innovative ways to treat the drug epidemic in the middle of a global pandemic. ARC management is hopeful they can finalize a deal this year with the property owners of OLBH. Doing so would restore an estimated 250 to 300 jobs in the City of Russell and Greenup County.

Matt Brown, ARC Senior Vice President of Administration, told the paper if it all comes to fruition, ARC would implement the model it has utilized with its Crisis to Career center on the former St. Catharine’s College campus in Springfield. Plans to reopen the existing behavioral health unit would also be in the works.

“We know that this region is one of the areas where the opioid epidemic really kinda got its start,” Brown said. “We believe that it’s time to turn it into the place where the solutions are created. We really believe in the people of this region. We don’t want to wait on outsiders to fix the problem we are facing.”

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