Update: Commission Postpones Second Forum to Discuss Closure of Tinley Mental Health Center

Lawmakers have postponed a meeting that was to be held tonight on the potential closure of the . 

A public hearing scheduled for March 12 at  has been pushed back, according to the website for the Illinois Commission of Government and Accountability. It has not yet been rescheduled.

The commission acts as an advisory panel to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, who is not legally obligated to uphold its recommendations. However, he has done so with eight of its recommendations since he took office, officials have said.

The hearing would have been the second on the issue since November, when the advisory group voted against closing the local health center.

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Lawmakers that would keep the Tinley center, as well as six other state facilities on the chopping block, open. But Quinn the Mental Health Center and The Jacksonville Developmental Center. The local center is slated to close in July, while the Jacksonville one would close in October.

Quinn has since announced plans to also shutter other Illinois facilities—prisons and juvenile centers are among them—including the Murray Developmental Center in Centralia and the Singer Mental Health Center in Rockford.

The plans to close the initial seven state-funded facilities , when Quinn said he wanted to narrow a $313 million budget gap.

The March 12 COGFA meeting was to allow community members who weren't able to speak at prior hearings a chance to have their voices heard. A similar hearing on the Jacksonville center was held March 7.

Stay with Patch for more coverage of Quinn's proposal to close the center. If you'd like us to let you know when we publish more info about it, click the green "keep me posted" button immediately below this story.