Residents Still Divided Over Planned Drug Abuse Center

A group of Lake View Terrace residents gathered outside the site of a proposed drug rehabilitation center Saturday to say that, although some residents are resigned to the center’s opening, they still had grave concerns about the facility’s effect on their community.

“You have a confused community and an angry community,” said Donna Les, 46, a member of the Lake View Terrace Home Improvement Assn. “A lot of people feel like it’s going to be foisted on them.”

Phoenix House Inc. last week filed a conditional use permit application requesting city permission to turn the former Lake View Medical Center into a residential high school and counseling program for 150 recovering substance abusers, ages 13 to 17. The effort briefly had the support of former First Lady Nancy Reagan, but she backed out of the project.

After the permit application was filed last Tuesday, some Lake View Terrace residents said it was time to stop fighting Phoenix House because the opening of the rehabilitation center was inevitable.

Although still harboring reservations, they had already begun negotiating concessions from Phoenix House about the facility’s operation to make it more acceptable to the neighborhood.

On Saturday, Bob Furginson, who along with his wife negotiated the concessions on behalf of the Lake View Terrace Home Improvement Assn., noted that the national nonprofit organization had already succeeded in buying the property in bankruptcy court in early June for $3.2 million.

Furginson went to the hospital to take a tour led by Phoenix House officials, who explained their plans for the project. But about two dozen other area residents showed up to grill Phoenix House representatives and discuss the issue among themselves.

Some residents were not sure whether they would still fight Phoenix House, but others said they were prepared to continue the battle.

“Why should we just lay down and die and let these people come in and destroy our neighborhood?” said Jack Miller, 42, a member of the Lake View Terrace Homeowners Assn. “Why should we have to put up with all the stigmatization we’ve tried so hard to overcome?”

Phoenix House faced stiff opposition in 1988, when the group first indicated it planned to take over the bankrupt hospital.

Neighbors renewed their criticisms and concerns two months ago when Phoenix House suddenly announced that it had revived its interest in the 14-acre Eldridge Avenue site.

And again on Saturday, residents such as Carmine DiRito, 43, said they believe that Phoenix House failed to take the entire community’s concerns into consideration. DiRito said any concessions made by Phoenix House should be mandatory, not mere recommendations.

“They have to chisel the agreements down in stone, and only then can we be secure about what we’re asking for,” DiRito said.

Chris Policano, a spokesman for Phoenix House, said that the concessions are included in the permit applications as actual conditions.

“Everybody has a right to speak their mind,” Policano said after an exchange of sometimes confrontational words between Phoenix House representatives and the residents. “We never said we were going to make everyone happy. . . . We knew we never could.”

Before embarking on the tour with Policano, residents agreed to hold a meeting July 20 at the Lake View Terrace Recreation Center to discuss the permit application, and to meet later that week with Phoenix House representatives to discuss their plans.