WARREN, Maine — The company that has tried unsuccessfully for more than two years to open a methadone clinic in town has withdrawn its application and will pursue its original federal civil rights lawsuit.
The lawsuit means the town could be liable for significant monetary damages, the company’s attorney said.
“This has dragged on for too long,” said CRC Health Group attorney Walter McKee on Tuesday.
CRC had originally filed the lawsuit in May 2011 but then reached a settlement with the town in September 2011 in which Warren’s insurance carrier would pay $320,000 in damages and the town would pay $1. The settlement, however, called for the town to act on CRC’s application for the clinic within 90 days.
CRC gave the town extensions on that deadline but McKee said no more. Town Manager Grant Watmough said the town was notified Tuesday by fax of CRC’s withdrawal.
The Warren Planning Board approved the proposed clinic in June but several neighbors filed an appeal to the Zoning Board of Appeals. The Zoning Board is scheduled to meet again on the matter at 7 p.m. Thursday.
McKee said, however, the appeal is a moot point since the company has withdrawn its application.
“But for the abutters’ action, none of this would have happened,” McKee said.
Attorney James Strong, who represents the neighbors, said his clients are pleased with the announcement. When told what McKee said about the abutters, Strong responded.
“That’s a compliment. It’s a good result for my clients,” Strong said.
The neighbors claimed in their appeal that the planning board erred in determining that the clinic conformed to the town’s land use ordinances and comprehensive plan. The appeal cited congestion, unsafe highway conditions and the clinic’s proposed location within 500 feet of 17 homes.
Strong said he does not know enough about the original federal rights lawsuit against the town to comment on it.
Doug Pope, chairman of the Warren Board of Selectmen, declined Tuesday to comment on CRC’s decision.
McKee said monetary damages against the town could be significant. He said the company has lost nearly two years of operating income since the town blocked efforts for CRC to locate, first at the former Warren Primary School and then on Route 1 at the intersection of Short Street.
He said he does not know if punitive damages would be sought against the town.
An estimated 240 residents turned out at a town meeting in December 2010 to enact a six-month moratorium on methadone clinics after CRC had proposed such a clinic. The moratorium was approved with only one dissenting vote among those attending. The town later adopted new regulations that imposed restrictions on such clinics.
CRC had first proposed its plan publicly in September 2010 and had proposed leasing space in the former Warren Primary School that was owned by the town. Developer Robert Emery signed a purchase and sales agreement with the town but town officials later rescinded it after considerable public opposition.
The town has spent $20,000 on legal fees thus far this year and last month residents agreed to allow spending an additional $60,000 on legal expenses related to the CRC matter.
CRC claims that the town’s actions violate the Americans with Disabilities Act by blocking the right of people with opiate addictions to receive a legal type of treatment.
Since the planning board approved the project in June, four of the five panelists have submitted their resignations, citing the controversy over the clinic among their reasons.
A proposed methadone clinic in Rockland has yet to open more than two months after it received its final state license.
The midcoast has been without a methadone clinic since August 2010, when Turning Tide was closed by the federal and state governments.
just what Maine needs a new Methadone clinic to support addicts
Stand your ground, people in Warren, whatever it cost, no matter how long it takes, send these clowns packing, this was always a dumb idea, dipping your beak into one poison is cure another, makes no sense.
Ask the residents of Warren how they feel in a few years when their taxes go through the roof to pay for the judgement that will be levied against the town for this absurd violation of rights.
While methadone clinics are not perfect, they do help people who want to help themselves. I know this firsthand as I developed a nasty addiction to painkillers after two different surgeries and years of pain. Yes there are plenty of people how abuse the clinics but there are also plenty who get the help they need to turn their lives around.
Unfortunately the ones who do stupid things and get arrested are the ones who get the media attention, while those who go through the program successfully and turn their life around do not make headlines. Anyone who is the least bit educated and not living in a trailer in the woods will understand that methadone clinics do far more good than harm. While no one wants them in their backyard, they have to go somewhere.
Also, as far as taxes going up in Warren, they will go up even more if this clinic is allowed. The good people of Warren will be forced to have a police department to enforce this clinic and their users. To have a police department, the good people of Warren will have to buy or build a home for the department. There will be police cruisers to buy and maintain. There will be police officers to pay and give benefits to. I’m sure there will be many more costly items that I’m not aware of that will add up to major money, year after year.
The good people of Warren will also have to pay for more emergency coverage. There will have to be more ambulances and a full time first aid staff to cover this clinic and their users.
I truly believe if an addict wants to help themselves, we should let the addicts go into a real rehab program and not this for profit farce.
This is rich! You are one of the first people to promote individual freedoms over community needs. Every man for himself right? Now you support regulating a company when it suits you. uh uh, you cannot have it both ways.
I’m not sure if we’re on the same page here or not. The community has made it very clear they do not want a methadone clinic.
When has the BDN done a story about the abuses of Methedone clinics and how their clients trade methedone for other drugs? H,mmm only if Bush had pushed for them.
Seems like the only way to make more money than by running a methadone clinic is to sue the people who try to stop you.
Great , just efffing great.
A company promoting drug use and wanting to provide a
gathering place for junkies doesnt get their way wants to sue the town
for monetary damages.
Taxpayers get ready to grab your ankles cause guess whats next.
Well , the town doesnt want this type of activity at that location.
So deal with it, drug pushing methadone promoters.
Go somewhere else.
Krikee, seems easy enough to figure out.
Townspeople of Warren–stand your ground. Your expenditure of $20,000 is a mere pittance to what you could be spending if you let another methadone clinic in your town. Take a good look at Bangor and be glad you said no.
Warren needs to fight the methadone clinic. I work at one in Virginia and the cops are there all the time. Giving legal opitates to replace illegal doesn’t make sense or stop addiction. The addicts just get addicted to another drug.
As a former patient at a methadone clinic I am appalled after reading your comment, if you do indeed work at a clinic. I feel bad for the patients at your clinic as you are obviously biased and not in any position to be treating those who are struggling with addiction. If you don’t believe in the mission of a methadone clinic why on earth do you work there? That is like saying you are a vegetarian and member of PETA but you work at a slaughterhouse. You are a pathetic human being who obviously has zero understanding of how addiction works and zero compassion for others. I can only hope that you are prescribed painkillers in the future and become addicted through no fault of your own. Then and only then will you understand the hell that it is to live the life of an addict.
Warren shouldn’t have to pay to not get a methadone clinic. I work at one and the cops are there all the time. Legal opiates to replace illegal opiates only enable the addicts. They don’t get of drugs just replace it with another drug. Oh yeah, they are not disabled.
hypocrite
I am so proud of the people in Warren! Stand your ground, you don’t need what is happening here in Bangor. It is sickening to think our “leaders” continue to allow this crap after all the violence since they opened. Something needs to be done NOW. What next, give the alcoholics a different brand of liquor to help them stop drinking?? I think not!
methadone clinics are a joke… sorry, but they are… I’ve not seen one sucessful case out of the midcoast area… the methadone is just a free crutch that they rely upon until they find some money for their next fix.. Personally I think methadone should be pulled from the shelves… the stuff is toxic, and when used as a pain killer on my grandmother it nearly killed her.. and she was taking it as prescribed. wound up in the hospital for 6 weeks in ICU. apparently with long term use the methadone, can build up in your liver, and release to your bloodstream.
Amen, Scott. Methadone is ridiculous. Must have been a junkie who thought up this “cure”.
Thanks for your medical opinion. What medical school did you go to? Where did you complete your residency? I am a successful case in the midcoast area, so there you go, you now know of one person who was helped by methadone. I have not used an illicit drug since the first day I went to the clinic, which has now been over 4 years. Yes some people use clinics to have something until their next fix. There are also just as many who use it to get off from drugs and turn their lives around. Until you have lived the life of an addict you would not understand. Going to a methadone clinic gives you your freedom back. Instead of wasting your day looking for drugs you can live a normal life and become a productive member of society. Once you realize this you only want to keep it up and never go back to living the life of an addict. I wish everyone was more informed and actually understood how methadone clinics work. Only then will our society be able to tackle the widespread issue of drug abuse. Addiction is a tricky thing, as some people can take painkillers for months and then stop cold turkey with minimal side effects, while others can take them for a week and develop a life long addiction. Walk a mile in my shoes and then tell me that methadone clinics do not belong in our state and are a waste of money.
I’m sure it has worked in a few cases. I know quite a few people in my area that travel an hour and a half to the clinic in Bangor EVERYDAY and therefore, they can’t hold down a job because they have to be at the clinic so, they are on welfare as well. They have been going for a year or more and I don’t see how that is treatment – it shouldn’t take that long on methadone to be free and clear of the drugs. Doctors need to be regulated on what they are prescribing but, they really need to find alternative ways to help or cure chronic pain. I have lower back problems and pelvis problems and everytime I go to the doctor, they want to prescribe me pain killers – I refuse and ask about alternative ways to be helped because for one: it doesn’t help with the pain, it make me dopey and incoherent and two: pain killers do not help with chronic pain!
Congrats to you on your sobriety and I hope it continues for you!
Good for you. Keep up the good work. It’s hard enough to turn your life around then you have to listen to the opinions of uneducated fools. I am also a successful case although I’m from Downeast Maine. I had an addiction to opiates prescribed by my doctor. I went through the methadone program and now I’m a successful substance abuse counselor. Doctors offices can also be abused maybe they should all be shut down. Methadone saves lives
I wish more recovered addicts that went the methadone treatment way, stand up like you both have and speak of your success stories. I am not fully against methadone treatment but, I am against the many that abuse it. Doctors should be monitored more closely when they are prescribing pain meds to their patients as well as the pharmacies (in-store and online).
If you want to see how a beautiful city turns into a slum for allowing Methodone Clinics (magnets for drug addicts and their criminal acts – they come from all over!), look at Bangor.
Better to risk a one-time settlement now, rather than have to pony up $400,000 per year in perpetuity for a full-time police department to deal with the fallout of having a for-profit methadone clinic in an in-town residential neighborhood.
Also, I fail to see how the town could be held liable for the perfectly legal and legitimate appeal of the permit by the abutting landowners. Such an appeal was never within the town’s ability to control.
If the Town Manager hadn’t had the latitude to enter into a backroom sweetheart deal with Bob Emery, this entire sad episode could have been avoided. And his continued mismanagement and sabotage surrounding this issue is starting to look like deliberate malfeasance bordering on the criminal. Hopefully the Board of Selectmen will do a better job of managing the next Town Manager.
A community should have the right to determine if they are going to allow more crime in their town.
The town and it’s residents want nothing to do with this type of clinic. The only person, so far as I know who does want it is Bob Emery, the man who invited all of this into the Town of Warren so he could make money.
Bob, it sort of backfired against you, didn’t it? Was it really worth losing your businesses and properties over? Was it worth the loss of respect and the loss of good friends? All that loss for the hopes of bringing in a drug clinic so one person who was dear to you didn’t have to travel to get his fix. Nice job there, Bob.
Let the addicts go into a real rehab program and not this for profit farce.
If residents of Warren think that allowing a methadone clinic in their town will increase crime, or attract the “wrong sort”, they are seriously mistaken. Or perhaps if they do think that they should also ban all Narcotics Anonymous/AA meetings in thw town too?
Like it or not, there are residents in Warren that need this clinic. Surely it is preferable for people that have addiction problems to be in treatment for those addictions?
It has been shown that methadone clinics actually decrease crime, as patients in treatment do not need to commit crime to fund their addictions.
For all of you making negative commenst in here about people who use methadone clinics, just think, what would you do if it were your son/daughter that needed treatment?? Have some compassion people.
I don’t think it’s about being compassionate or not. Its about not wanting a methadone clinic in your backyard. The methadone clinic in Rockland didn’t attract the best people, although I happen to think the location was decent. And please don’t tell me that I have to pay for police and prisons if we don’t treat the addicts or methadone if we do. (My understanding is that approximately all of the methadone sold in Rockland was paid for by taxpayers.) If this is the route we choose to go, lets not put an additional burden on the good people of Warren who own homes and raise families there.
They have run the methadone scam long enough..Time to close them all down.
If you build it, they will come…
Warren learning the lessons from Bangor’s failures.
These “clinics” are about $$$ period.
Witness three in Bangor.
That’s working out so well.
“But for the abutters’ action, none of this would have happened,” McKee said.
The people stood their ground even over the obvious desire of their own city government. Hmmmm, why didn’t that work in Bangor?