After lengthy process, the county is now fully in possession of the old Red Cross building along South Third Street in Danville, which officials hope will serve as the home for an outpatient drug treatment program.

Judge-Executive Harold McKinney announced to the fiscal court on Tuesday that the special warranty deed, which had previously been approved by the fiscal court, was signed and recorded. 

With the deed, there was a closing statement that included a $1 check  — the price for building, McKinney said. 

“It’s been a long and winding road,” McKinney said. “It required some patience.”

While Boyle County will own the Red Cross building, the Red Cross has been serving and will still serve Boyle County, as the county is a part of the Bluegrass Chapter. 

“The Red Cross continues to provide quality Red Cross services to the citizens of Boyle County and will retain an office in the building,” Bluegrass Chapter Executive Director Terry Burkhart said in a press release. “Since the local community raised the funds necessary to construct the building, it made sense to return the building to the community for community purposes.”

Boyle County Treasurer Mary Conley said the proposals for what kind of rehabilitation program could be run out of the building are due today. The county wants to run a drug treatment program for former inmates of the Boyle County Detention Center in an effort to cut into the area’s drug epidemic issues and reduce recidivism.

“It is ours, and it is a good day for our people who are incarcerated with drug issues and we can move forward,” McKinney said. 

The building at 454 S. Third St. was vacated by the Red Cross in November 2014 after budget reductions forced several local Red Cross branches to merge into one statewide branch and shift corporate duties to Louisville.

In the months that proceeded the closing, the fiscal court decided the building would be the ideal location to launch an intensive outpatient drug program — a program that would solve three ongoing issues: filling vacant Danville office space, addressing an ever-increasing drug problem and helping to relieve jail overcrowding.

Initially, negotiations focused on securing a two-year lease on the building from the Red Cross, with a subsequent sub-lease to WestCare Foundation. But negotiations bogged down and questions over how the deed should be prepared slowed the process.