Gretna delays action on Kush site

In a setback for Catholic Charities, Gretna city officials delayed action Tuesday on plans to convert the former Rod Kush mansion into a youth treatment center for teens with drug and alcohol addictions.

More than 100 people piled into Gretna's City Hall to hear discussions before the city's planning commission and weigh in.

Catholic Charities has asked Gretna to approve a conditional-use permit so the facility can operate within the city's zoning jurisdiction. On Tuesday, the permit went before the commission, which delayed making a recommendation. The City Council will make the final decision.

Catholic Charities has said it hoped to renovate the mansion and move into the building before the year's end. The organization has used a building in Bellevue as a temporary location the past two years for its youth substance treatment program, Journeys.

Based on Tuesday's two-hour discussion, Catholic Charities may have a steep climb. About 70 percent of the crowd at the hearing, many from the nearby Lincoln Place subdivision, fiercely opposed putting a treatment facility near their homes.

The residents voiced concerns about safety and fears that young people in the program would abscond from the facility and wander into their neighborhoods, causing criminal mischief.

“It will be in my backyard,” resident Kendra Davidson told the panel. “I have a teenage daughter and two smaller kids. It sounds like a great program, but I am concerned for my family and for my neighbors' kids.”

Davidson and other homeowners also worried that the facility would substantially decrease their property values.

However, a handful of local residents lobbied on behalf of the program, wanting it to be embraced and welcomed.

“These kids need help,” said Gretna resident Kurt Nielsen. “These kids are great people. They are not horrible people. I give them my full support.”

He urged fellow audience members with fears to tour the existing facility in Bellevue and meet with the some of the adolescents enrolled in the program before passing judgment.

Representatives from Catholic Charities attended the meeting to urge a favorable recommendation and keep the project on schedule. The planning commission will resume deliberation at its July meeting.

Last November, an Omaha developer bought the Kush mansion at an auction, and he has agreed to lease 25 of the 35 acres to Catholic Charities. Journeys wants to operate a 16-bed in-patient facility for youths ages 12 to 19 from all over Nebraska.

Patrick Sullivan, an attorney representing Catholic Charities, told the panel the facility would be supervised 24 hours a day by adult staff who would immediately notify the Sarpy County Sheriff's Office if a youth wandered off, he said.

Bellevue Police Chief John Stacey submitted a favorable letter to Gretna, indicating that the Journeys program did not cause any problems for his department or the neighborhood near Bryan Middle School.