Comtrea celebrates 50 years with fall festival

(Jefferson County) Comtrea Treatment Incorporated celebrated 50 years of service to Jefferson County by holding a fall festival on Thursday afternoon at the site of its newest location alongside Compass Health Network. The new center with Compass will be in the old Shop N Save building on Truman Boulevard in Festus. Comtrea has merged with Compass to provide even more treatment options to the community. Comtrea CEO Sue Curfman says the merger is all about helping more people.

Comtrea began as a halfway house for troubled teenagers, and over the years added hundreds of other health and mental health options. Dr. Stephen Huss was the first Executive Director of Comtrea in 1973, and later named President and CEO and held that position until his retirement in 2016. Huss says it’s been amazing to see things moving in such a positive direction.

Tracy Wiecking (WICK-ing) was the former COO and Assistant CEO until he stepped down in 2017 after working for Comtrea for a total of 30 years. Wiecking also hosted a radio show for Comtrea on KJFF called “It’s All in Your Head”. He says it was a great way to get important information out to the public.

As far as the new Compass Health Network building goes, renovation work has already started to convert all of the 60,000-square-foot structure to house a wide variety of health needs of the community. The hope is to have the new building open for patients in late 2024.