A California company wants to convert an empty facility formerly used as nursing home into a trauma assistance center for as many as 88 female veterans, including those who have been sexually assaulted by fellow soldiers.

But some Taylor residents say they don't want the facility in their town.

"It would put veterans in a situation where they are going to a town that doesn't want them," said Cherri Wolbrueck, co-owner of a Taylor bookstore. She talked about her opposition after attending a zoning board meeting where representatives of the company — Center Point Inc., based in San Rafael, Calif. — spoke.

Wolbrueck lives across the street from the proposed facility where veterans would live. She said she fears that veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder might attack residents in the Buttermilk Hill neighborhood.

"They can have an episode where a flashback transports them back into a combat situation, and they can perceive anyone as a threat: an elderly person taking a walk around the neighborhood, or a child on a bike," she said.

Laura Lambe, the executive vice president of Texas Center Point Inc., which would operate the facility and is a subsidiary of the California company, said the veterans who would be served at the facility would not be a danger to the community.

The facility would provide counseling and rehabilitation services to female veterans in Central Texas, Rivera said. It would also provide about 40 jobs, he said.

Baska said he worries about the safety of the facility based on the company's record. The company provides health and rehabilitation services in several locations across California, including state prisons, as well as at three locations in Oklahoma.

According to a July 2007 story in The New York Times, California authorities were investigating accusations of poor health care that resulted in the stillbirth of a 7-month-old fetus at a center where mothers serve prison terms with their young children. The San Diego facility was run by Center Point.

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Several people who attended Tuesday's meeting told Rivera that the trauma assistance center was not necessary because veterans who are victims of sexual assault may receive counseling services from the Department of Veterans Affairs. A VA spokesman did not return a call for comment last week.