Monday, Nov. 09, 2009

Maternity center still plans to open in O'Fallon, despite resistance

O'FALLON -- Organizers of a planned maternity center in the city say they plan to move forward with their mission soon.

But after meeting unexpected resistance to their initial efforts, they plan to start off small and take it slower this time.

"We're still focused on opening in O'Fallon," said Susan Hoff, spokeswoman for the nonprofit Fontabella group that wants to help at-risk women get their lives together as they prepare to welcome a child into the world. "We've scaled things back a bit as we start out because we want to get a little bit of a history built up and go from there."

Members of the group initially proposed a 9,000-square-foot shelter at 1033 Hartman Lane that would house eight to 10 expectant mothers and live-in chaperones. But residents of a townhouse complex next door complained about the project, which led to it eventually being rejected by the City Council. Among other concerns, they said Fontabella had never operated such a facility before and had no way to prove it could raise enough funds to continue operation.

"We're going to start to do some fundraising to show it's viable," Hoff said. "We'll probably have two or three women at first and build from there."

Hoff hopes the scaled-down center could be in business by January. She did not reveal the location. But, while she said she wished the center could be up to full capacity faster, she said she has learned to be patient with the process.

"It's taken me seven years just to get to this point," Hoff said. "I went on a retreat in 2002 and I felt God's unconditional love. I wanted to find a way to put that into my everyday life and share it with others. I asked God how he wanted to share it and this is what he wanted."

Since then, Hoff said she has visited other maternity homes and worked with church leaders and other women's help groups to develop plans for Fontabella. The name, which came to Hoff on a trip to Italy, means "beautiful source of life" in Italian.

"I didn't even know what a maternity center was when this started," Hoff said. "But, in addition to meeting with a lot of people to come up with a plan, we put together a board of directors. I am kind of disappointed that things didn't work out the way we originally planned. But I am excited to get something open. And I believe there is a reason we have had to take baby steps."

The first formal fundraising event is a walk starting at 9 a.m. Saturday at Rock Springs Park.

Mayor Gary Graham and other city leaders they rejected the Hartman Lane plans because of neighbors' objections to the location, although they thought Fontabella's project would be an asset to the city and that they supported it.

In July, the council voted 10-4 to deny re-zoning of the Hartman Lane property needed to allow the maternity center to be built there. Graham said at the time that while he personally thought the idea was a good one, for every resident in favor of it, 50 had told him they were opposed to it at that site.

Graham pledged to help the group find a different location in O'Fallon and suggested three.

"I haven't heard anything from them in about a month," Graham said. "We offered some suggestions for other sites but that is sort of where we left it."

Hoff said two of the three sites had flaws that couldn't be overcome. A third, on North Charles Street, shows some potential as the future home of the center.

"Before we would move forward on that we would have to talk to the neighbors and make sure they don't object to it," Hoff said. "We don't want to have the same sorts of problems that we had the first time."

Hoff said sites in Maryville, Belleville and Madison were discussed. But she hopes to keep it in O'Fallon.

The proposed home would house expectant mothers older than 18 who would otherwise be homeless. It would provide training in child care and other life-skills, and help the women transition into other housing after the birth of their babies. Members of the Fontabella group hope to create the center to give young women an alternative to abortion.