MCSC moves into new location

Madison County Service Coordination has moved to a new location at 140 S. Main St. in Fredericktown, the former site of Barrett-Jensen Chevrolet.

According to its mission statement, “Madison County Service Coordination’s mission is to support and advocate for individuals with developmental disabilities, by locating resources that deliver value, helping to enrich the quality of their lives through personal choice.”

Dennis Siders, chairman of the board, says MCSC has two revenue sources.

“One is that we are the Senate Bill 40 Board,” Siders said. “We receive tax levy money from the county. We distribute a large portion of that to the (Madison County) sheltered workshop. And what remains of that we try to help some of our developmentally disabled individuals to do what they would like to do, find a job, we want to give them training, (and provide) social activities, recreational activities.”

Service Coordination Executive Director Beth Baugh said the tax money is earmarked by state statute for individuals who have developmental disabilities.

Baugh said the second source of revenue is that the SB 40 Board has a contract with the Missouri Department of Mental Health—Division of Developmental Disabilities to do targeted case management. This is to help Madison County residents with developmental disabilities to live independently in the community. The Madison County Council for the Developmentally Disabled (MCCDD) and Covenant Care are MCSC’s two biggest service providers locally.

“We coordinate those services, do the treatment planning, and work to get the funding,” Baugh said.

MCSC employs Baugh, four service coordinators, and an office manager. They currently serve 122 clients. Last year, the MCSC staff was housed in an office space rented from MCCDD.

“We needed more office space,” Siders said.

“With the hiring of our fourth service coordinator, we were out of space,” Baugh said.

Siders said around the same time, the opportunity to purchase the former car dealership building arose. He said he is friends with the building’s former owner, Bill Banks.

“Bill made us a very attractive offer to buy the building, because he believed in what we do,” Siders said. “So, we decided that having a presence downtown and being able to beautify this particular area and make downtown a little more vibrant was important (and will) give us more of a presence. People know who we are now with this.”

MCSC closed on the building in June. Siders said the cost of the building was $150,000. In addition, $100,000 worth of renovations are being completed. The new location is 13,000 square feet under roof, according to Siders. This includes 3,600 square feet of office space which they have renovated. It is more than twice the space at the MCCDD location.

“We like the idea of being more centrally located for all of our clients (and) having the space to, hopefully, host more events,” Baugh said. “Where we were at, we primarily just had our office space, so this is going to give us more space and hopefully opportunity to host events to grow more programs for them. We’re really excited about the possibilities of what we can do here for our individuals that maybe we didn’t have the opportunity to do just in an office space. So this is very exciting for us, for how we could grow.”

MCSC has a nine-person board. The board members are not paid. Besides Chairman Siders, there are Vice Chairman Anna Berkbuegler, Secretary Debby Boone, Treasurer Renee Sargent-Harrison, Jeremiah Dietiker, Eric Hovis, Mindy Moore, Irvin Rudasill, and Shawnett Williams.

Siders said at its recent meeting, the board talked about phases for the new location. Phase one is redoing the inside for the offices. Phase two is making the outside more attractive. Phase three is developing the area which housed the garage and bays, and phase 4 is what to do with the large parking lot on the north side of the property.

“We have a tremendous amount of space,” Siders said. “It’s just having our own space, having our own building to do things we want to do, it will be great.”

“We’re excited about the possibilities,” Baugh said.

Siders said there probably are a lot more than the 115 or 120 individuals which MCSC has on its caseload.

“A lot of people don’t realize how many services are available for them,” Siders said. “But, they have to go through an intake procedure to get qualified and certified with the state and then we can start getting them services from the state and from Medicaid.”

“We are hoping that if they know we are here, we can help find those people,” Baugh said.

According to the MCSC website, “Eligibility for services includes any person whose disability was onset before the age of 22. The disability is likely to continue for a lifetime and results in major problems in at least three of the following areas: Self-Care; Receptive/Expressive Language; Learning; Mobility; Self-Direction and Capacity for Independent Living or Economic Self-Sufficiency.”

Individuals may contact MCSC at 573-783-4451 to start the intake process for services.

Madison County Service Coordination is now located at 140 S. Main St. in Fredericktown, the former location of Barrett-Jensen Chevrolet.