The Irene Stacy Community Mental Health Center is seeking bankruptcy protection after Butler County Human Services said it will end its contract with the center Dec. 31.

The center’s board on Tuesday made the decision to retain bankruptcy counsel and authorize bankruptcy proceedings.

The roughly $1 million county contract is about 70 percent of the center’s income. The center has 2,000 clients and 140 staff members.

Joe Hauser, executive director of the center, said, for all intents and purposes, the center will stop existing as it currently is Dec. 31 and will reopen Jan. 1 under new management. He said his goal is to create an easy transition for the center’s clients.

County Human Services director Joyce Ainsworth said she decided in October to revoke the contract because of the center’s ongoing financial issues, which she said made her concerned that the center could close down sometime, leaving its clients with nowhere to go.

She said that Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services based in Washington County is the organization that is likely to get the contract. She said it has done work for county Human Services in the past.

As a condition of the contract, whoever gets it would have to open an office in Butler County.

Ainsworth said the county commissioners will have to vote on the contract.

Brent Olean, president of the center board, said without the county contract, Irene Stacy would not have the funds to continue operating as is.