By Kelley VanArsdall
The Republic
Editor's Note: An exclusive week-long series of articles explores the past, present and future of the Muscatatuck State Developmental Center in Butlerville. The center opened in 1919 and is scheduled to close by Jan. 1.
BUTLERVILLE — A blue stuffed Fluppy Dog. A bag filled with bars of soap. A mustard packet. Pictures torn from a magazine.
Time stands still in Lincoln Hall, one of the vacated buildings on the grounds of the Muscatatuck State Developmental Center.
A 2002 calendar, opened to April and filled with daily notes and scribbles, is pinned to a cork bulletin board. April magazines lay scattered across a table in the residence hall’s kitchen.
No one is left, but these items stay, icons of what used to be.
The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration in 2001 announced it would move out. It expects to be gone by the end of January.
Nearly 300 residents have been transferred to new health care facilities and about 150 employees have worked to find new jobs.
“I cannot say I understand how they feel,” said Randy Krieble, assistant director for the Bureau of State Operated Services for Family and Social Services Administration.
“Because I don’t.
“It’s been a forced choice.”
The developmental center staff has tried to stay positive, knowing the closing is not its fault, but a result of a change in the way the state provides mental health care.
“It isn’t about closing for us,” said Krieble. “It’s about arranging better services.
“It’s time for us to move on and get in step with the way things are changing.”
For Muscatatuck residents, this change means scaling down from large-group care to more individualized attention. For center employees, it means finding another state health care position or moving with the residents for whom they have cared for years and can’t bear to leave.
For the facility’s infrastructure, it means transforming to a military training center.
The Indiana National Guard will use the 68 buildings and more than 800 acres on the campus for urban combat training.
“The military told us to go ahead and keep whatever was left behind in the buildings,” said Krieble.
The grounds have held five titles and seen nearly 8,000 residents. Now those faces are leaving, the Muscatatuck State Developmental Center is closing, and the blue stuffed Fluppy Dog will make way for armed soldiers.
TODAY: An explanation of the function of the developmental center and the closure’s impact.
MONDAY: Since the 2001 announcement of Muscatatuck’s closure, nearly 200 employees have had to find new jobs.
TUESDAY: A profile of Charlie Fordice, a 40-year resident of the center who recently moved to a group home.
WEDNESDAY: How the closure of Muscatatuck is affecting life in Butlerville.
THURSDAY: A look at the changing face of disability health care and its effect on Muscatatuck.
FRIDAY: The story of 50-year resident Dorothy Stewart, who no longer needs to be at Muscatatuck but doesn’t want to leave.
SATURDAY: Muscatatuck adopts a new role as a homeland security training site as the Indiana National Guard moves in.
Portions © 2004, The Republic, Columbus, Indiana