BOULDER -- This small town nestled along the Boulder River with a sweeping vista of the Elkhorn Mountains was built on dreams.

Many of the town's earliest residents in the 1860s moved here dreaming of striking it rich, mining for gold and silver in the nearby Elkhorn Mountains and surrounding foothills.

However, a delicate yet profound shift started in 1893, when Montana built a state school for the deaf and blind. The school eventually became the Montana Developmental Center, serving people with mental and physical handicaps.

A century later Boulder became home to two more institutions -- Alternative Youth Adventures and Riverside Youth Correction Facility, both dealing with troubled teens.

During the past year, Boyd Andrew's Elkhorn Treatment Facility, a state correctional and drug treatment center for women, was built.

The need for MDC's services diminished as the developmentally disabled moved into mainstream society. MDC started serving other clients, too: this time, some developmentally disabled people with criminal backgrounds.

In the past decade, this town of 1,363 residents become home to at least 150 people with a new dream -- to leave their drug, sexually abusive and troubled pasts behind, and to do so with the help of the institutions in this town.

This shift, from dreams of gold to dreams of escaping an often nightmarish existence, is reshaping Boulder.

Mayor Daryl Deede Craft has lived in Boulder all his life. Both his parents worked at MDC, and he briefly followed in their footsteps.

"The facilities are great neighbors," Craft said. "It's definitely an economic boost. It's created a lot of jobs."

Nearly 60 percent of workers at the four facilities live in Boulder or Jefferson County. Although the facilities are tax exempt, they still pay fees for most services. And Elkhorn Treatment Facility voluntarily pays a monthly $1,000 fee to the county, as well as $100 monthly rent of the land.

Other, less tangible effects, also benefit Boulder.

"They opened up eyes in the community for the need for affordable housing and that's not a bad thing," Craft said. "It's a wonderful thing. They're a positive impact on the community."

He said he hadn't heard any complaints about new facilities during the past decade -- until the women's facility was built last year, which houses methamphetamine addicts on the road to recovery.

Most concerns involved security at the Elkhorn Treatment Center, and Craft believes those have been adequately addressed.

MDC also came under scrutiny after news articles about some of its clients. At a March public meeting, citizens asked about MDC clients who were accused of murder, one of whom was criminally convicted. They also raised concerns about monitoring and treating sex offenders on the open campus, which is not fenced.

Quieter rumblings ripple through the community regarding AYA's clients, troubled youths who are labeled "sexually reactive" or "highly sexualized" -- terms used to describe children who may have been sexually abused and then abused others in similar manners.

Brett Lutkehus used to work for AYA when it was operated by Community Education Centers, which served troubled youth, most of them sent by the juvenile courts.

"I didn't come to AYA to work with sexually reactive or sexual offenders, so I chose to go elsewhere," Lutkehus said. "I don't think the community really knows the type of kids that are out there."

Boulder residents initially were concerned with bringing methamphetamine addicts to their community, but since the Elkhorn facility opened this April, there hasn't been much discussion over it. Riverside also doesn't seem to create much of a fuss.

One reason AYA and MDC are more controversial could be that they have open campuses. But that doesn't mean their clients aren't under constant supervision.

Directors at the four institutions acknowledge they sometimes deal with a clientele on the fringes of society. But all say they take steps to protect the public, and Jefferson County Sheriff Craig Doolittle said he doesn't have any particular concerns about the facilities.

He noted that anytime someone is committed to an institution like MDC, AYA or Elkhorn, there's always a public risk. But for the most part, he believes the people working in the facilities are professionals and do a good job "within the constraints of what they can do."

"There's always a realistic concern for safety when a person runs away from one of those places," Doolittle said. "The public safety concern is what are they willing to do to get away from that situation. Are they willing to steal a car? Are they willing to hurt somebody? These are things we just don't know most of the time."

Although MDC has critics, it also has defenders. Among them are some of its residential neighbors on 4th Avenue.

"I don't have any problems or concerns," said Nancy Alley, who's lived on 4th for 11 years. "Not at all. I've never had a problem."

Barb Reiter, who lives in a rural area near the South Campus, said she's comfortable with the nearby facilities.

"There have been occasions when residents have escaped from one of the institutions, but it's been so rare. It's been taken care of and handled well," she said. "I really don't have concerns."

But she added that the Boulder community is kind of "a mixed bag of folks" and some are uncomfortable with the institutions and the changes in who they've brought to Boulder in recent years.

"Anytime there's a change in the direction of what's going on that is different than the information the public had originally, they should get the information out," she said. "That's some of the concerns people had about MDC."

Celia Wolny lives near the Elkhorn facility and is concerned that the community is becoming an institutional town. She objected to the building of the meth facility.

"The only thing I probably would say is Boulder's at its limit of health services," Wolny said. "We need diversity as far as jobs. I would say, 'no more.' "

She noted that all the facilities "have potential to grow."

County Attorney Matt Johnson said his office has had little involvement with activities at the institutions, although he expects to deal with a Riverside Corrections assault charge, where a juvenile will be charged as an adult.

As for MDC, his office has only been involved in one incident in the past five years, he said, and one recent incident at Elkhorn Treatment Facility resulted in disorderly conduct charges for several inmates.

Along with concerns over the sexual issues presented by some AYA clients, Lutkehus also is critical of the number of staff present and the different treatment style now being used.

He said some staff "weren't competent for handling a high stress job" and that qualified people weren't available for some jobs.

"I think it could present security issues," he said. "I think they provide a service for youth that needs to be done -- the question is whether it could be done better."

Jamie Grossberg, the licensed clinical social worker who supervises the AYA day treatment program, said the staff-to-client ratios meet or exceed Montana licensing requirements. AYA is also pursuing more rigorous international accreditation.

AYA does turn down clients, Grossberg added. They screen clients to select those who are dealing more with mental health, rather than criminal issues.

Safety is ensured by the number of staff provided, said Peter Degel, executive director of Youth Dynamics, which purchased and operates AYA.

"We have line of sight, face-to-face supervision all the time," he noted.

While some former staff may be unhappy with AYA, that's not the case for all.

Jennifer Pryor, who retired at the end of June from AYA, said she didn't have any safety concerns.

"I don't feel they're a security risk," Pryor said. "I didn't feel I had to look out. I thought they had adequate staff and adequate training."

She saw staff deal with several severe behaviors, she said, and thought they handled them extremely well. She lives on the edge of town, not that far from the facility, and said she didn't have any fear about clients escaping

"I really liked the young people," Pryor said, adding that society should provide more service and therapy. "I think we do them a disservice."

For videos and a complete list of stories in the IR's four-part series on Boulder's institutions, check out www.helenair.com/boulder.

Reporter Marga Lincoln: 447-4074 or marga.lincoln@helenair.com