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Proposal divides community

6 min read
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CARMICHAELS – Heidi and Jason Whipkey bought their home in Cumberland Township three years ago with the hope of raising their two sons in a peaceful and safe setting.

The couple didn’t mind the periodic hustle and bustle of the Paisley Industrial Park they look down on from their property, and the Whipkeys say they welcome development to their community.

But they have found themselves in a fight to stop a proposed methadone drug-treatment clinic from being built on a parcel of land in the industrial park directly next to their 23-acre property.

The proposal by DJ Realty Holdings LLC to build the Greene Medical Center 1 methadone clinic is now highlighting the dichotomy between the need to treat people with opiate addictions and residents who don’t want it in their rural community.

“My thoughts immediately were my kids,” Heidi Whipkey said when she learned of the proposal in June. “We’re worried. The biggest thing is the kids.”

Others who are protesting the development have said they’re concerned about bringing recovering heroin users into their rural community and whether it will spur crime in the area. The Whipkeys have hired a lawyer and are lobbying township and county officials to block the proposal.

However, a prominent drug-treatment specialist said the Whipkeys and others in the community should not fear a methadone clinic. In fact, Dr. Neil Capretto, the medical director for Gateway Rehab in Beaver County, said they should embrace it and view it as a way to help residents hooked on opiates and possibly reduce criminal activities by people who steal to feed their addictions.

“A community only needs this program when there is a problem in the community,” Capretto said. “You’re not going to create people addicted to methadone. Whether people want to acknowledge it or not, there is a major (heroin) problem.”

Capretto said methadone treatment “dramatically reduces overdose deaths” and also decreases crime in the area as heroin users are weaned off the drug to function without it and, in some cases, are able to hold down jobs.

“It’s not perfect, but there’s much less illicit opiate abuse,” he said. “A person is then more likely to get a job, pay taxes, more likely to have a regular life and raise a family. It improves the general health of a person. I still strongly believe in recovery.”

Right now, the closest methadone clinics are located near Washington, Uniontown and Perryopolis. Greene County Human Services Director Karen Bennett said her department processed medical assistance claims for 200 county residents going to those three facilities in July. That number does not include people who pay for treatment out-of-pocket or through other means.

Beating addiction is not easy, Capretto admits. He oversees the clinic in Beaver County that dispenses suboxone, which he said is a “better, safer medicine” to treat patients. But police are also seeing an increase of people who are selling or using suboxone without prescriptions.

Cumberland Township police Chief Craig Miller said officers are seeing an influx of suboxone and subutex abuse that are “up there with heroin nowadays.” Each doctor is different, Capretto said, but many try to safeguard against abuse by asking for pill counts so the drugs don’t fall into the underground market.

Methadone works differently. Patients at methadone clinics drink a clear liquid in front of a nurse and can come back to the clinic in consecutive days for treatment. As they are weaned off the opiate, they come back less frequently, but still might seek weekly treatment for years. Counseling is also mandatory with the treatment, Capretto said.

Capretto has seen fear in other communities where treatment clinics are being considered, but he stressed that the developer must be open about the project and engage residents about what it will mean for their area.

Jimmy Jones, a local builder involved in the project, said Wednesday he wanted to do “something positive for the community” and identified the need for a treatment center in Greene County. But there has been little, if any, information distributed to the public about the proposal other than schematic drawings submitted to Cumberland Township that show a 5,084-square-foot building with counseling offices, treatment areas and waiting rooms.

The doctor identified by Jones as the person who will be overseeing the facility declined to comment when reached by phone last week. No one was at DJ Realty Holdings LLC’s office near McCellandtown when a reporter visited Wednesday, and no phone number is listed for the entity.

“It could be win-win, if done properly,” Capretto said about outreach from the developers. “I would be proactive with the people and urge the clinic to be transparent to get feedback and assure the public. When you don’t, then you have tension and problems.”

Even if the township and county approve the project, there is a long list of regulations the developer must adhere to before being licensed by the state.

Carey Miller, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, said the office reviews what type of facility will be built, and there are added steps to follow for a methadone clinic. The state then works in union with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to review the plans before providing certification to run the program.

Miller added her department “won’t even consider an application” until the building is constructed and inspectors can tour the site.

“We need to make sure they’re providing the services that are going to help the clients, and we need to make sure the place they’re going to be in is safe, as well,” Miller said. “We have a lot of checks to go through.”

That means it could be years before Greene Medical Center 1 ushers its first patient into treatment.

Meanwhile, the Whipkeys said they will continue fighting and doing everything in their power to stop the development from being built a couple hundred yards from their home.

“Our county, our community should protect our kids,” Heidi Whipkey said. “This is a serious matter. It’s definitely a lot of stress on us.”

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