By JIM MISUNAS
jmisunas@gbtribune.com

LARNED — Larned State Hospital staff, Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services officials, and reintegration facilities management of the Sexual Predator Treatment Program will conduct an 11 a.m. public meeting Friday with Larned community leaders at the Jordaan Room of the Larned Chamber of Commerce.
The open meeting scheduled from 11 a.m. to noon will likely address a proposed expansion of the Sexual Predator Treatment Program unit at LSH. Community leaders were told that the expansion at the Jung Building was expected in October or November.
Friday’s meeting is expected to include Mike Dixon, SPTP forensic psychologist; Bill Rein, KDADS behavioral health commissioner; Susan Andrews, KDADS chief counsel and Tom Kinlen, LSH superintendent, and directors at Parsons and Osawatomie.  
Larned leaders were  recently told that expansion of the reintegration phase, which includes community reintroduction of upper-level SPTP participants, had been authorized at Parsons State Hospital and Training Center and Osawatomie State Hospital.
KDADS is currently seeking an opinion from Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt whether the Pawnee County Sheriff’s office is bound by statute to register all LSH patients as sexual offenders.
Pawnee County Sheriff Scott King and Pawnee County Attorney John Settle met recently with Attorney General Schmidt to discuss the registrations, which by statute are a necessary precursor to community reintegration. County legislative adviser Steve Kearney and Patrick Vogelsberg, of the Kearney law office, also reportedly attended the meeting.