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Cardinal News
Serving Southwest and Southside Virginia
Due to the escalating costs of construction, Dickenson County’s new wellness center will be built in an existing building downtown rather than in its original location in a new building next to the Wildwood Recovery Center.
The wellness center will be at 161 Courthouse Lane, behind the county courthouse parking lot. While final details of the services to be offered are still being refined, Dana Cronkhite, the county’s economic development director, wrote in an email that the focus “remains on delivering a combination of clinical treatment, recovery support, and prevention and community programming.”
The county board of supervisors will vote Tuesday on a memorandum of understanding for the operation of both the Wildwood Recovery Center and the wellness facility.
If approved, the wellness center will be operated by Momentum Recovery Virginia, the same company that will operate Wildwood, a drug treatment center for men that is located near Clintwood and the Red Onion Industrial Park.
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The downtown wellness center is expected to open in the second half of 2026, Cronkhite said.
In February, county officials announced that Wildwood has been given a conditional license to operate by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. County officials said then that Wildwood was also expected to open in the second half of this year.
Virginia’s Opioid Abatement Authority awarded more than $3.31 million to the county for construction and operation of the wellness center.
The wellness center would have included a gym, clinical space, classroom/group room space and a flexible-use space.
“Unfortunately, due to the continued increase in construction costs, the original plan was determined to not be feasible. With that said, we had to pivot and develop an alternate, cost effective plan,” wrote Cronkhite, who says plans for a gym and other services are still being developed.
The one-year memorandum of understanding would be between the county and Momentum Recovery Virginia, doing business as Wildwood Recovery Center. It specifies that the county Industrial Development Authority would be responsible for building the gymnasium, and that Wildwood would be responsible for operating the downtown wellness center, “including programmatic services and staffing.”
Wildwood would agree to provide a periodic accounting of costs to operate the facilities, along with progress reports and an annual report. Also, Wildwood would agree to indemnify the county for any damages resulting from performance of the terms of the agreement.
The board will convene at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Dickenson Center for Education and Research, 818 Happy Valley Drive, Room 209, Clintwood. You can view the agenda online.
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Jeff Lester served for five years as editor of The Coalfield Progress in Norton, The Post in Big Stone… More by Jeff Lester 
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