“I’m very proud to think they’re going to reopen it, and I know Dick would be very proud,” said Wehler’s widow, Jeanette Wehler.
“He was always big on kids” getting help, added their son, Jon Wehler.
Having seen a 40 percent cut in state funding, “we’ve been looking for four years for other sources” to help young women, including mothers, while they get treatment, said Dan Barksdale, CEO of McKinley Hall, which provides treatment programs locally.
The operating costs will be paid by $10,000 from the City of Springfield and in-kind services from McKinley Hall and the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Clark, Greene and Madison Counties.
Barksdale said Wehler House represents “a good, clean, safe residential setting” for up to 10 women and children while the women get back on their feet. Before its recent reopening, just “four small apartments” were available, Barksdale said.
Although the reopening “is not going to put a dent” in the prescription drug abuse problem, “it certainly is going to help those individuals” it serves, Barksdale said.
It also represents an alternative for women who do not qualify for the 70-day residential program at the Women’s Recovery Center in Xenia.
While living at Wehler House, the women will continue their treatment at McKinley Hall Women’s Program, 2608 E. High St.
“The hope,” said Barksdale, “is that, over time, funding will increase so the treatment component at the Wehler House will be different than anything else offered in town.”
Richard Wehler, who died of cancer in 1992 at age 67, worked with his mother, Roleen Wehler, Rosemary Paxson and the Rev. F.F. Mueller to establish programs for developmentally disabled people.
His brother, Bobby, was developmentally disabled.
Pete Noonan, who worked with Wehler on community projects involving developmental disabilities and later mental health and addiction, said “he wasn’t just a head shot.
“He saw a real issue here and worked hard to bring state dollars, federal dollars into the community and develop programs. He was on the very forefront.”
Jon Wehler said that when Wehler House opened in 1990 as a day-treatment program for adolescents with addiction problems, his father “didn’t miss a single graduation.”
At the Oct. 29, 1990, dedication of the facility, Richard Wehler described its underlying purpose: “It means so much to me to see young men and women go through a facility and come out with a new life.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368.
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