Wildwood Recovery Center, Dickenson County’s long-awaited addiction treatment facility near Clintwood, has hired an administrator and is beginning to hire staff as it inches closer to opening later this year.
Tyler Jordan was named administrator of the center and will bring years of experience in the recovery field and degrees in counseling.
“I wasn’t going to take the job until I got down here,” said Jordan, who is originally from Salyersville, Kentucky. “These people are so welcoming to recovery that I couldn’t turn it down at that point.”
Jordan said he will train the staff of Wildwood knowing the center will only be as good as the team he builds. He will also help connect the center to different treatment options already happening in and around Dickenson County.
Momentum Management Solutions, based in Louisville, Kentucky, took over as the operator of Wildwood in October 2025. Matt Boggs, the company’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer, said Jordan had the most experience of all the applicants.
“I’ve done what I could do in the state of Kentucky for treatment,” Jordan said. “I need to be here to help. I want to be here to help.”
Dickenson County, ravaged by substance abuse and with one of the state’s highest overdose death rates in the state, announced Wildwood in January 2023 as a means of helping those with addiction get help in an area with very few treatment options.
County officials hoped to combine treatment with job training that would help clients land a job. At the same time, they wanted to increase the county’s low labor force participation rate, the number of the civilian population that is either working or actively looking for work. The county’s rate hovers around 41% compared to the state average of about 66%.
The center will serve both men and women, a change from the initial plan to accept only men at Wildwood and open a separate treatment center for women at a former elementary school in the nearby community of Nora. It is yet to be determined what will happen with the old school building due to what would be high construction costs, officials said. It was being developed by Greg May, who also developed the Wildwood project.
Hiring the Wildwood staff
Center officials have begun looking at resumes and conducting pre-screenings of applicants to fill positions from cooks to care specialists at the 112-bed residential treatment center. Wildwood has received 187 resumes as of July 20.
Boggs said that the hope is to hire within Dickenson County as much as possible for the 18 jobs currently being filled. The total employee count will be more than 50 when the center is at full capacity, a gradual build from opening day, he said.
Despite the hiring developments, an opening date has yet to be set for Wildwood. The facility received its first six-month conditional license from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services in February, and a second six-month conditional license will go into effect Aug. 2. Conditional licenses ensure providers demonstrate compliance before moving to a full-time annual license.
Wildwood will operate a clinically managed high-intensity residential treatment, and will pursue licenses for additional lower levels of care once open. Treatment length and plan will depend on the client.
Beyond hiring, the only remaining piece is getting insurance contracts approved. Momentum is working on contracting with Virginia’s Medicaid managed care organizations, which will allow them to receive reimbursement from insurance companies.
They have contracted with three of five of the managed care organizations in the state, and applications have been submitted to the two remaining, Boggs said.
He added that he anticipates the facility will open during the last quarter of this year, meaning an end is in sight for a five-year project.
“Getting to the point of having an administrator start and posting all of the job positions was such a pivotal moment for us because we’ve been waiting so long to get to this point,” said Dana Cronkhite, executive director of the Dickenson County Industrial Development Authority and the county’s economic development director.
Cronkhite said she understands community frustration over the time it has taken to open the facility, which received its certificate of occupancy in January 2025. This was a new project for the local government and took time to do correctly, she said.
Jordan began work in Clintwood on July 7 after spending the past seven years serving in various leadership roles at Addiction Recovery Care of Kentucky, including as administrator of its Crown Recovery Center.
Originally, ARC was expected to be Wildwood’s operator, but it was let go because its efforts to obtain a state license went on too long, county officials have said.
At the time, ARC was under investigation by the FBI for possible healthcare fraud. Last month, Tim Robinson, founder and owner of ARC, was indicted on one count of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering.
FBI spokesperson Gabrielle Dudgeon said this week that the agency has no public update on the case. Robinson has since pleaded not guilty.
Jordan’s last day with ARC was July 5. He said he was ready for the next step in his career and looking forward to bringing his work ethic to a smaller facility.
Larry Barton, Dickenson County administrator, said the county is not involved in Momentum’s hiring process. The company has delivered on everything the county has asked so far, he said.
Momentum’s CEO, Matt Brown, also formerly worked for ARC, where he served as the chief administration officer and president.
“I can’t fault an employee for an employer who didn’t do well. We just have to find the best qualified staff,” Barton said.
Creating an ‘ecosystem for recovery’
With Momentum as the new operator, Cronkhite said the approach will be different than it was planned under ARC, which had success with a “treatment‑to‑work” model that combines residential addiction treatment with paid job training and internships.
Rather than provide all services in-house, Momentum will partner with existing community initiatives to provide wraparound services to clients.
Wildwood will work with Mountain Empire Community College’s Project SOAR, which provides workforce training in trades like welding and electric at its Dickenson site. The Southwest Virginia Workforce Board will also be a partner through its ROPES program, which helps clients in recovery with services including child care and driver’s license reinstatements to help them get back to work.
“I think it allows Momentum to focus on the piece of the puzzle they do best, and that’s the treatment,” Cronkhite said. “We’re working, really, to create an entire ecosystem for recovery here in Southwest Virginia, with the epicenter being in Dickenson County.”
Dickenson County Recovery, which provides sober living housing for people in recovery, and the local recovery court will also be partners, Boggs said. Clients also will meet with primary care, vision and dental providers.
Partner services will eventually operate out of Recovery Connections, a resource hub that will be housed at a county property currently being renovated behind the courthouse in Clintwood. It’s being funded through a $3.3 million opioid abatement grant.
Cronkhite called the facility a “one-stop shop,” where people in recovery will be able to access services such as financial classes or behavioral health training. Rachel Patton, executive director of the Southwest Virginia Workforce Development Board, said the case manager for the program expects to transition into the space once it opens.
The county is heading up improvements to the building, including roof repairs and interior renovations for ADA compliance. Boggs said they aim for group and individual counseling to be offered at the site in the more distant future.
While it remains unclear whether Wildwood or Recovery Connections will open first, Boggs said whichever is ready will be opened immediately. Boggs said he anticipates that insurance contracts will be finalized soon and that staff hiring will pick up significantly over the next month.
“We are extremely close,” Boggs said of the center opening. “We are ready and all of us have been working diligently, so we’re excited to announce soon.”
The remainder of the opioid abatement grant will be used to build a gymnasium for Wildwood next to the center.
Last week, Jordan and his Wildwood team attended a commencement ceremony held by Dickenson County’s adult recovery court. Three people graduated from the recovery court in front of benches filled by friends and family. Jordan said seeing how tightly knit the recovery community is in the county “won him over.”
Cronkhite added that the Red Onion Industrial Park, which is market-ready and accepting inquiries, was intentionally located across from the recovery center. Once some small manufacturing companies locate in the industrial park, a potential workforce can be trained from those who leave the center after treatment.
Both of these sites were built on a former strip mine, one of the few flat places to build in Dickenson County, which is known for its mountainous topography. The rehab center sits where miners used to pile fill, rocks and minerals left over after coal extraction, Cronkhite said.
“We haven’t had this many new jobs in our county since coal mining,” she said. “If we don’t have a healthy community, our economy isn’t going to thrive.”
