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A new home to call �Place� Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Dennis Wright and his 2-year-old son, Stephen Wright, pick up a car seat at the Safe Place for a trip to a Portland children�s hospital. The Safe Place, which provides goods and services to low-income pregnant women or those with children under 5, must find a new home because of plans for a proposed new juvenile facility on 10th Street that has yet to be approved by voters. Medford agency would be moved by juvenile center By Jonel Aleccia The Safe Place needs a new place as Jackson County officials contemplate construction of a proposed juvenile center. Plans for what may be a new parking lot at 801 W. 10th St. would demolish the building housing the nonprofit agency that provides practical aid and emotional support to struggling women. Three months before the county makes a third attempt to gain voter approval for a new $16.5 million juvenile facility, officials are already paving the way for the project. Program manager Tina Livingston said Wednesday she�s searching for a new space to replace the 1,300-square-foot house crammed with clothes, toys, books and strollers, all available free to needy moms and kids. Livingston said county officials gave the word two months ago that she�d have to move to make way for a parking lot, although no immediate deadline has been set. "It�s been a great building, a great location," said Livingston, 27, who has run the program in several sites for three years. "But we are the only building here holding up this section from being torn down." County Administrator Sue Slack said there�s no hurry to evict Livingston�s program. "She�s just got the cart ahead of the horse," Slack said. "We need eventually to find her a new home." Jackson County owns the Safe Place house and the land beneath it, as well as several other associated buildings, said Hank Collins, county health and human services director. He said county officials want to tear down the structures and put in a parking lot to compensate for spaces that would be lost to construction of a new 56-bed center on 10th Street next to the Justice Building. Slack, however, was more vague about potential uses for the property. "It could very well be a parking lot but nobody has laid out a site plan yet," she said. November�s vote will be the third time the county has asked voters to approve funds for a new juvenile center. County commissioners and administrators have said that the time is right to pass the bond: It has popular support and the county will lose $4.1 million in federal matching funds if the facility isn�t nearing completion by 2003. In 1998, the measure lost by 1 percent of the vote. In a 1999 election that required at least a 50 percent turnout, the measure won by 60 percent, but only 41 percent of voters participated. This time, a simple majority would approve the plan. "Many of us hope that on election day in November we�re going to pass this juvenile measure," Collins said. Passage may be likely, but it�s not assured on a ballot crowded with funding measures. Both Slack and Collins downplayed the notion that the county was too confident of approval. "We�re just being smart," Collins said. "These deals can take a long time to make." In the meantime, the Safe Place is searching for new digs to continue serving some 300 women a month, nearly 4,000 a year. "What we really need is for someone to donate a building so we can get out of this volatile relationship with the county," Livingston said. The center, which is primarily financed through grants and federal Medicaid funds, has been located in several sites since its inception a few years ago. It provides goods, services, programs and advice to low-income pregnant women or those with children under 5. The 10th Street location has been barely adequate because of its small size; it�s likely that it would have required a new site even without plans for the juvenile center, Slack said. Livingston said she�s been looking for new space for months. It needs to be a place in west Medford, where most of her clients live; it needs to be handicapped accessible or adaptable; and it needs to be in an area zoned for commercial uses. "There�s not a lot out there," she said. The program is in no immediate danger of closing, Livingston and county officials emphasized. On Wednesday, it was business as usual as Livingston helped fit Stephen Wright, nearly 2, in a properly installed car seat. His parents, Gina Speer, 31, and Dennis Wright, 30, of Medford, came to the center on the advice of co-workers. They took Stephen to Portland Wednesday for medical tests at Doernbecher Children�s Hospital. "We do have a car seat but you can tell it�s really outdated," said Speer. "This is great. We�ve got a long trip ahead of us and it�s really scary." County officials said they were determined to make sure the Safe Place stays open for families like Stephen�s. "It reaches a lot of women that we don�t reach any other way," Collins said. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA