A woman who suffered from an apparent medical condition lost control of the vehicle she was driving, causing an accident Wednesday afternoon about six-miles north of Villisca, in Montgomery County. Sheriff’s officials say 43-year old Nichole King, of Villisca, was traveling north on Highway 71 at around 4:20-p.m., when the 2012 Nissan Titan truck she was driving went off the road to the west and hit a highway road sign.

The pickup continued thru the intersection of 185th Street into the Sciola Cemetery, where it hit a couple of tombstones before striking the remains of the Sciola Church foundation. The truck came to rest with the driver’s side front tire hanging over the opening of the foundation.

Officials say King opened her door and fell 10-feet into the basement floor of the former church. King was treated at the scene by Villisca Fire and Rescue personnel before being transported to the Montgomery County Hospital for further treatment of non-life threatening injuries. The truck, registered to Jeffrey King, sustained $7,500 damage. No citations were issued. The accident remains under investigation.

Governor Terry Branstad says the state will look to other facilities to provide care if his proposal to close the state-run Mental Health Institutes in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant moves forward. The governor’s budget sent to legislators does not include any money to keep the institutions open past June 30.  “We had two mental health centers that were not accredited, we have no psychiatrist in Mt. Pleasant, the one in Clarinda is going to retire. So, we wanted to provide better services, and also we are going to work with the University of Iowa Hospitals. The governor says they want to use facilities that have the proper staffing to help patients.

“We think we can provide better services to people with mental health issues with making this transition and not continuing those facilities where they’re not accredited and where we don’t have psychiatrists,” according to Branstad. The idea is not favored by everyone, including Representative Dave Heaton, a Republican from Mount Pleasant. Heaton is chairman of the subcommittee that writes the budget for the Iowa Department of Human Services, the agency in charge of the Mental Health Institutes, and he’s arranged for the agency’s director to go to Mount Pleasant Saturday (January 24th) to explain the proposed closure to the community.

Five years ago a consulting firm hired by then-Governor Chet Culver recommended that the Mental Health Institutes in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant close, but Heaton and others worked to keep the institutions open. The Mental Health Institutes are routinely the treatment option of last resort for acute care of mentally ill patients. The governor’s budget indicates the state will save 15-and-a-half million dollars by closing the two facilities. The M-H-I at Clarinda opened in 1888 while the Mount Pleasant facility opened the year the Civil War broke out, in 1861.

(Radio Iowa)