DRUG TREATMENT CENTER TO OPEN IN CORYELL COUNTY

A family with personal experience in addiction and recovery is opening
a 32-bed drug treatment center in the wide-open spaces of western
Coryell County.

Serenity Ranch Recovery Center on FM 183, 10 miles west of Purmela, was
licensed this week by the Texas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse and
will begin signing up patients immediately, said executive director
Glenda Chipps.

The center will be the only licensed drug treatment center in Coryell
County that is not part of the state prison in Gatesville.

Chipps' son-in-law, J.D. Cummings, a builder by trade and a partner in
the treatment center, built the 16-bedroom facility on a 12-acre
section of one of his ranches.

"The advantages are that it's out in the country, where it's quiet, and
there's a lot of trees," Chipps said. "A lot of people drink and take
drugs because of stress in their lives. Here, all that is taken off
them temporarily, to let them have thoughts of their own."

The facility will have 20 to 25 employees, including at least four
licensed counselors. Anita White, a licensed chemical dependency
counselor, is program director.

Chipps said the inspiration for the clinic was the experience of her
daughter, Glenda Cummings. She said her daughter is a recovering drug
and alcohol addict who got her life turned around while in a
residential treatment program.

"When she was in the last time, she came out with a totally different
attitude," Chipps said. "She really decided that she wanted to change."

Chipps said her daughter wanted other recovering addicts to have the
same positive experience.

"It was a dream of my daughter to build something like this," she said.
"She's always had a big heart for wanting to help people."

Chipps said the treatment program was developed by John Weatherred, a
licensed drug counselor in Cleburne who has worked with addicts in
Texas prisons. The center will accept people with any kind of drug or
alcohol addiction and will offer an outpatient as well as a residential
program. The residential program typically lasts 30 days.

The center does not have a detoxification program, but Chipps said she
hopes to add one later.

The Serenity Ranch center will offer nondenominational chapel services
but its programs are not religion-based, Chipps said.

Officials with the Texas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse say the new
center should fill a need.

"Especially in rural areas, there is a great need for treatment
facilities," spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said.

In McLennan County there are 13 licensed drug treatment sites, offering
a total of 149 beds for inpatients. All of those are in Waco. Limestone
County has no residential treatment facilities except one for jail
inmates in Groesbeck.

The state council offers funding for drug centers, but Chipps said
Serenity Ranch missed the most recent round of funding. She said she is
working on getting insurance programs to cover treatment at the center.
Chipps said she believes there's a demand for the center's services.

"I get the idea that most of the facilities such as ours are turning
away clients because there's not enough rooms," she said. "I feel like
there's a demand for this all over the world. We need more of these
centers all over."