Layoffs at the Mental Health Institute in Mount Pleasant will begin next month. Danny Homan is the President of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Iowa 61 Council. He told a senate subcommittee Thursday that staff at the facility have been given a time table for the closure. Homan tells KCII News that the last day for Center for Psychiatric Care and Duel Diagnostic staff will be March 30th. He says staff in the substance abuse treatment center will be laid off in early June, effectively closing the facility. The union leader adds he was notified after employees were made aware of the plan on Tuesday.

To voice their opposition to the closings of the Mental Health Institutes in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda, a group of Iowa Wesleyan nursing students and State Senator Rich Taylor delivered a petition with more than 7,000 signatures to the Governor’s Office in Des Moines on Wednesday.

Yesterday, Taylor invited Branstad to tour the Mount Pleasant facility to see firsthand the services provided there, and asked him to cease layoff notices until he does.