BANGOR – State substance abuse officials announced Monday that – in addition to plans to open a methadone clinic here – they also will look to offer the treatment in Washington County.

On the heels of Monday’s news, the Bangor City Council accepted without objection a plan that would allow a methadone clinic to open in the city, given some conditions.

Kimberly Johnson, director of the State Office of Substance Abuse, said that the state has found a Machias treatment provider to apply for a federal grant that would be used to provide the treatment in the state’s easternmost county.

“I will be looking to open a methadone program up there, something small to start with,” Johnson said, stressing that the clinic’s opening was largely dependent on acceptance of the federal grant. “I think there’s a need, and we’re going to see what we can do.”

Johnson said the treatment provider, whom she would not identify, was not interested in running the clinic, but she did hope to offer the treatment in Machias in about a year.

“But I’ve been told I should take what [location] I can get,” added Johnson, who met with community members and treatment providers in both Machias and Calais on Monday evening.

Johnson also said she planned to pursue a second, but nonprofit, methadone clinic in the Portland area. The state has two privately run methadone clinics, one in Winslow and one in South Portland.

Continuing efforts to develop a clinic in Bangor have been met with often heated resistance, with opponents calling the clinic a magnet for drug addicts and drug-related crime.

Methadone is a synthetic narcotic used to treat those addicted to heroin and other opiates such as the prescription painkiller OxyContin, the abuse of which has plagued eastern Maine in the past several months.

News of plans for a Washington County clinic was well received in the city, where a panel that studied the problem for five months had recommended that the state also offer the treatment in that region. Like the Bangor area, Washington County has seen an alarming rise in opiate addiction in the past two years, according to state substance abuse officials.

“Just the fact that [the state] has listened to the panel and is looking to provide a comprehensive service is encouraging,” said Bangor City Councilor Nichi Farnham, who with Dr. Jack Adams from Acadia Hospital, chaired the council’s Special Committee on Opiate Addiction. “Providing that service closer to the homes of people who need it out there is a significant step forward.”

City officials, who cheered and applauded upon hearing of the state’s plans, pushed for the Washington County clinic in hopes of reducing the influx of addicts into the city from the area.

Acadia Hospital, at the request of the State Office of Substance Abuse, applied in February to open a clinic in Bangor. The news divided the community and led to the formation of the City Council’s Special Committee on Opiate Addiction, which provided its final report to the council on Monday night.

The council on Monday stood squarely behind the committee recommendation that a methadone clinic open in Bangor under certain conditions.

The report, seen by some as paving the way for the controversial clinic, was not without its skeptics, who pushed for a one- or two-year delay before the clinic would be allowed to open.

At Monday’s meeting, Dr. Paul Shapero of Bangor voiced his displeasure with the committee’s backing of the clinic, calling it a “grave disservice to the citizens of Bangor.”

“It’s like there’s another agenda here, and it’s not the will of the people,” said Shapero, who cited a nonbinding November referendum in which voters rejected the clinic.

“It’s a disservice and clearly not representative of the citizens of Bangor.”

State officials have contended that they have already delayed the clinic’s opening for a year by agreeing not to license the facility until the committee had completed its work.

Only state and federal authorities have the ability to license a methadone treatment facility in a community. City officials have no authority to reject such a clinic.

Among the committee’s recommendations was that a community advisory group be formed to evaluate the clinic’s operations. The committee also suggested that the clinic not be licensed until hospital officials decide on a location – a prerequisite for state and federal licensing.

Acadia officials had proposed locating the clinic at the hospital’s isolated Indiana Avenue facility, but later agreed to find another temporary location after city representatives pressed for a more general medical setting such as Acadia’s main campus on Stillwater Avenue.

Hospital officials have not yet proposed a new site, but have estimated that a clinic could open within four to six months after a site is found and licensed.

Local police, the state’s top federal prosecutor, and local school officials had recommended a delay of up to two years for the Bangor clinic so added police and enhanced education could be in place before its opening.

As part of its recommendation, the opiate panel also endorsed an increase in state funding of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency to provide more agents in several Maine counties.

To that end, a Calais-based group calling itself Neighbors Against Drug Abuse met Monday with state officials in Calais and agreed to support a bill sponsored by Sen. Jill Goldthwait, an independent lawmaker from Bar Harbor. The bill would fund 20 additional MDEA positions for five years. If approved, the effort would bring 10 new agents to Bangor, and five each to Hancock and Washington counties.

Representatives from the Special Committee on Opiate Addiction will present their report to Lynn Duby, the commissioner of the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, on Wednesday. The department licenses and oversees methadone treatment services in the state.