Former Abbe Center building in Marion set for demolition in 2016

CEDAR RAPIDS - Linn County's building that had housed the Abbe Center for Community Care residential facility until a year ago is now being used for tactical law enforcement training in its last phase of existence.

Darrin Gage, the county's director of policy and administration, said on Thursday that the Linn County Sheriff's Office has been using the empty building for training. and he said the Linn County Board of Supervisors this week gave the Cedar Rapids Police Department permission to use the building at County Home Road and Highway 13 for its training as well.

Gage said the water is shut off to the building, but electric service remains connected.

He said the county is slated to demolish the building, which opened in 1976, in 2016. The building is in need of renovation and no longer will be used for what it was intended, as a residential facility, he said.

The Abbe Center was built to replace the county's county home, but Gage said the idea today is to better integrate those with mental-health needs into the community rather than provide services for them in large residential facilities like the former county home or the former Abbe Center for Community Care.