WARREN, Maine — The town’s planning board ruled Thursday night that the proposed methadone clinic off Route 1 failed to meet several town ordinances.
The votes were taken during a raucous three-hour meeting in which the planning board chairman repeatedly ruled speakers, including a selectman, out of order. His admonishments, however, did not stop the people from continuing to speak.
The board also held a couple of five-minute recesses in which they gathered on stage to discuss the matter out of earshot of the public.
Planning Board Chairman Peter Krakoff warned the board that the town likely would lose in federal court on the reasons that the plan was being found out of compliance with town ordinances. The board voted 4-1 that CRC’s proposal for 1767 Atlantic Highway failed to meet the town ordinance on vehicular and pedestrian safety. The board also voted 4-1 that the clinic failed to meet the 500-foot setback from residences and that CRC had not proved there were no practical alternatives.
CRC attorney Walter McKee said after the meeting that he has asked the board, and it has agreed, to consider whether it is a reasonable accommodation to allow the clinic to be closer than 500 feet. Reasonable accommodation is contained in the Americans with Disabilities Act, the federal law that CRC’s lawsuit against the town cited.
McKee also said CRC will propose building a sidewalk on Short Street, which is located adjacent to the property.
The board will meet again Tuesday night at 7 at the Warren Community Center to consider those two final issues.
McKee said he does not know if the matter will go back to court. The deadline is Friday, June 8, for CRC to decide whether to dismiss the lawsuit it filed in May 2011, alleging the town was violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by enacting a moratorium and then restrictions on methadone clinics. The two sides reached a deal in September in which the town agreed to act on a subsequent CRC application within 90 days of it being filed, a time frame that passed several months ago.
During a break in the meeting, McKee said CRC’s concern from day one has been that the methadone clinic is being treated differently because of what it is.
“If this were a proposal for a day care center at this location there would be two people here maybe, not 100,” he said.
Selectman Michael York criticized Krakoff for raising the issue of the lawsuit during the board’s deliberations. York said the board should just review the proposal to see if it meets the town ordinances.
Krakoff ruled him out but York continued to speak, saying the chairman could have him thrown out of the meeting.
Resident Sara Alley of Main Street also was ruled out of order on more than one occasion as Krakoff said the public hearing part of the meeting was over but she continued to speak and also dared him to throw her out of the meeting.
Alley and other neighbors said the clinic would generate excessive traffic along side streets as people would use short cuts rather than enter on Route 1. Alley said the traffic would take away the right of the neighborhood to enjoy the recreational use of the streets, including walking and bicycling.
Krakoff countered, however, that both the traffic study done by CRC, a peer review by a firm selected by the town, and the Maine Department of Transportation found that there would be no more than 12 to 13 cars an hour going to the clinic during its peak hours of operation.
“One vehicle every five minutes is not a huge impact,” he said.
Alley said, however, that the DOT study only looked at the impact on Route 1 and not the side streets.
In terms of the 500-foot setback, McKee said there is no practical alternative to the location selected. He said other locations would cost twice as much.
Residents argued that there was no evidence other than CRC’s statement that there was no practical alternative.
No more clinics!
Please do not classify drug addicition as a disease, take the funding and use it for our elderly, PLEASE. Do not reward bad choices in life.
Don’t do it Warren!!!
We have Bob Emery to thank for this fiasco. He’s the one who invited them in. Funny how his businesses are going bankrupt since he brought these people to town. Prior to him bringing his “friends” to Warren, his businesses were doing superb and Mr. Emery was making money hand over fist. Last I knew, his properties were being auctioned off and he’s lost numerous accounts. Not a very wise move on his part.
I’m positive this CRC group will place Warren right over a barrel with their threats of lawsuits. Again. And again. And again at each and every town they want to set up drug shops in. “If you don’t let me have my way, I’ll sue.” -CRC
Yes, bring on the meth, just what the State needs… Can you smell the meth brothah????? LOL
The thing that is the most baffling about this case is that if the town wouldn’t have put up a fight for fear of trouble that won’t happen the clinic would have been up and running peacefully and Warren, like so many towns before them, would have realized that there is nothing to fear and that the clinic has no more impact on the town than the local grocery store. This is really not much different than the angry crowds banding together in the ’80’s to fight clinics that treated people with Aids because they believed that they were promiscuous deviants who would give Aids to their children simply by being around and touching things. Just like the protests in the 80’s these protests are based on ignorance and baseless beliefs in a threat.
Several other towns have fought the opening of methadone clinics and lost, having the clinic open quietly without people hardly noticing that they are there. Years later nobody even thinks about the clinic anymore because there are no jonesing junkies speeding on their streets, committing crimes in their towns, or harming their children. It’s sad that the residents fight this hard because of assumptions without bothering to find out the facts.
Most likely Warren will follow Dunmore, PA, who also tried to legislate a clinic out of town but lost in court, had to pay $300,000 and had to allow the clinic anyway. The clinic has now opened and, low and behold, people didn’t even know it had opened.
Methadone is not “meth”–slang for the street drug methamphetamine. It is a completely different pharmaceutical medication taken orally, has been around since the 1940’s, and is used for both pain management and addiction treatment. Fears that such clinics will cause all kinds of horrors, such as increased crime, lowering of property values, threat of harm to children in the area, impaired drivers, etc have all been proven false over the 50+ years of methadone treatment in this country. Clinic patients come from all walks of life, and may very well live next door to you, be related to you, work at your child’s school or be your attorney, nurse, hairstylist or the owner of the grocery store. 75% are in treatment there NOT for heroin addiction, but rather for addiction to prescribed painkillers–and those numbers are increasing all the time.
My town has a clinic that has been in operation directly across the street from an elementary school for ten years now. Patients and children cross the street together with the crossing guard. There has never once been a SINGLE instance of ANY patient doing or threatening to do ANY harm to ANY child. Nor do crime rates increase where clinics are located . These people are there for treatment. They WANT treatment. They are not being FORCED into treatment as most in abstinence based rehabs and 12 step groups, which have a FAR lower rate of success than methadone treatment, are. However, a very recent study showed that convenience stores DO increase crime rates.
Methadone does not cause any sort of high or euphoria in these patients due to tolerance to the medication–that is why it is used. They receive counseling, and take home medication is strictly controlled and given out very cautiously only after months of meeting 8 point criteria requirements, and it can take years to receive as many as a week’s worth of take home medication. The patient is not impaired cognitively and can drive, operate heavy machinery, and do any other normal task without difficulty. It is only when medication is mixed with other drugs that these problems occur, and patients are regularly tested for these other drugs and take homes rescinded if any are found. They must also be ready at any time to return with takehomes showing they still have the ones they should in their possession if they receive a call from the clinic.
These are not monsters. They are not looking to hurt you, rob you, kidnap your child or run you over in the street. They are simply seeking the most effective treatment available for opioid addiction, a problem that can cause permanent chemical imbalances in the brain’s ability to manufacture natural opiates (endorphins), and due to this, some may require long term–even life long–treatment, just as with many chronic physical and mental maladies that have no cure.
Keep fighting! Do not give in. CRC is not interested in helping people…..it’s all about the money! All these people fighting for these clinics are just like puppets doing what CRC wants them to do. They are in complete denial about the dangers of methadone (scared their methadaone they are addicted to will be taken away if the truth comes out)and want to convince others it is not dangerous. Methadone is being diverted, pharmacies are being robbed for methadone, crime has continued and methadone is being abused!
http://www.stopmethadonedeaths.com