Halfway house faces opposition
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Turning Point house is under construction in Springfield on Tuesday. Cassandra Hotaling / Rutland Herald |
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By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: November 14, 2009
SPRINGFIELD – A plan by the Turning Point Center to build a halfway house for men and women recovering from addictions, including former inmates, has run into local opposition.
But the complaints have come too late, as the project won all its permits in the summer, said Springfield Zoning Administrator William Kearns, and the period for appeals has also expired.
The Turning Point Center, which is located on Morgan Street, was given a prefabricated house, and Ed Battles, executive director of the Springfield center, said this week the house will be placed on a full, poured concrete foundation. He said he expected the first residents to move in in a couple of months.
The center has been open in Springfield for four years; there are nine such recovery centers in the state, ranging from Burlington to Brattleboro and Bennington. Each center is independent, but part of the Vermont Recovery Network, a nonprofit group.
Each provides a drop-in center for people recovering from addictions such as alcoholism or drug use, said Battles.
Battles said that there is no tolerance for people who come to the center and either want to drink alcohol or use drugs. He said he had personally reported people to the police for coming to the center to try and sell drugs.
"We've been here four years and nobody's noticed it," said Battles, who said that the new house, which would include seven rooms for recovering addicts, was an expansion of its Springfield effort. The house will also include a suite for a live-in supervisor.
Kearns said the town's 1999 agreement with the Department of Corrections on hosting the new state prison stipulated that only Springfield inmates would be discharged from the prison into the Springfield community.
Battles said he was perplexed by the opposition voiced by Kim Rhodes, a local taxi driver who lives on Pearl Street, which adjoins Morgan Street, where the Center is located. Battles said that Rhodes routinely drops off and picks up people at the center with his taxi.
Rhodes, along with about seven residents of Pearl Street, said that he was concerned that the center was too close to Park Street School, the Springfield Shopping Plaza, and Riverside Middle School. Kids walk along Pearl Street via the plaza footbridge to the two schools all the time.
Rhodes said he was in particular worried about sex offenders getting out of prison and moving into the house, because there are many children in the neighborhood, and the kids walking to school.
Rhodes and other Pearl Street residents questioned why there hadn't been public notification of the project, and they said they had been kept in the dark about the project.
Kearns said that public notification had been given in the spring, and that Springfield zoning regulations call for a public advertisement, along with individual notification to abutters.
There were only three abutters to Turning Point, he said.
He noted that the facility was located in the central business zoning district and was an approved use. He said the Springfield Development Review Board had approved the project, calling it an "accessory use" to the existing drop-in center.
Battles said the residents of the halfway house would pay rent, and were expected to get jobs and start their way back into society.
"We don't mess around," said Battles. "The house will have more rules and regulations than many homes."
Turning Point plans on taking in both men and women addicts, but Battles admitted that there were problems having a mixed population and the center may ultimately change its plan.
There are more men in recovery programs than women, Battles said, although drug and alcohol abuse is increasing in the female population.
"This is not permanent housing," he said, noting residents will stay for anywhere to three months to two years.
"They are expected to get a job and get back on their feet," he said.
Mark Ames, network coordinator for the Vermont Recovery Network, who co-founded the network, said that the first center started as an Alcoholics Anonymous Club in White River Junction 15 years ago.
"It's something this community needs," Ames said, noting that national statistics put the number of Americans with addiction problems at 10 percent of the population. "Lots of people in jail have addiction problems," said Ames.
Ames said each Recovery Center sets up its own policies, which would determine whether sex offenders getting out of prison would be accepted.
"I can't imagine they would," Ames said.
He said that 85 percent of all inmates have some kind of substance abuse problem, and that most criminal offenses in Vermont are committed while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
"They range from doctors and lawyers to construction workers and first ladies," he said, a reference to former first lady Betty Ford. "It's an equal opportunity problem."
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