ORONO – Saddled with debt and in “very bad” disrepair, the Treats Falls House for mentally retarded adults will close within 12 to 18 months, an official from the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services said Friday.

The agency’s 18 residents will be relocated to facilities that can provide similar services, according to Region III Director Kathy Bubar, who oversees Washington, Hancock, Penobscot, Piscataquis and Aroostook counties.

At least $150,000 is needed to make sure the building on Hillside Road is safe and usable, according to Bubar, who said the roof, windows, ceiling and bathroom fixtures need replacing or repairing.

The agency has an operating debt of $100,000, and the town of Orono has a tax lien on the building, Bubar said.

But the problem is more than just getting a hold on repairs and accounts payable, according to Bubar.

A letter submitted in September 1999 by independent auditors Berry, Dunn, McNeil and Parker of Bangor states that Treats Falls’ total liabilities exceed current assets by $430,000.

“There is uncertainty as to the organization’s ability to continue as a going concern,” she said, quoting from the letter.

The facility opened in 1980, one of several small, community-based, private, nonprofit agencies designed to replace Pineland Center, the large congregate care facility in Pownal.

With 47 employees, including a 24-hour nursing staff, Treats Falls is funded through state and Medicaid dollars.

The state’s decision to close the agency was tough, Bubar said. “This is never one that’s made lightly and easily, especially when you’re talking about the disruption of the lives of 18 people that we support. It was truly made only because we don’t see any other options.”

About a year ago officials began looking to see if another organization would take over the mortgage and run the agency, Bubar said.

But, ultimately, each needed the state to come up with a quarter of a million dollars in operating money, something the department was unable to do, Bubar said.

The future of the employees is unknown, according to Carl Leinonen, executive director of the Service Employees International Union, who said he was surprised by the state’s decision.

“We’re still hoping we can keep [the agency] open both for the sake of the residents and the employees,” said Leinonen. “I hope it’s a precautionary move on the state’s part and that it hasn’t closed the possibility of another operator.”

The decision stunned both the residents’ families and Executive Director Catherine Thibodeau Robertson, who said officials informed them about the impending closure during a meeting Thursday night.

“I was shocked – I wear my heart on my sleeve and I have to say I was very emotional,” said Robertson who knew about the agency’s financial woes when she took on her position in January 2000.

“I knew they were severe, but I thought we had been working to resolve the problem, I thought there were some options and that we were making headway and looking at different possibilities,” she said.

Robertson took issue with the state’s description of the building, although she conceded that the roof was a major issue and that some windows needed to be replaced.

The director worried about the care that clients would receive elsewhere. “I don’t think the services will be as comprehensive and the nursing care as adequate,” she said.

But Bubar isn’t worried about finding appropriate services for the displaced clients.

“There are 10 agencies in the region that provide housing and support services for people with mental retardation,” she said. “And hundreds of people are supported by these agencies.”

Programs will be designed around individual needs, according to Bubar, who said the state would help agencies create a new facility if necessary.

Jane Gallivan, the director of the state’s adult mental retardation services, had further consolation.

“We’ll go person by person, finding out what kind of supports each individual needs and what the family is looking for,” she said.

But officials don’t minimize relatives’ concern. “This will be a huge change for their loved ones. These are people who are vulnerable and who don’t typically respond to change easily. So the families are predictably worried and frightened,” Bubar said.

Meanwhile, the mother of a resident wondered why the agency’s problems hadn’t been nipped in the bud.

“Our concern is why is this happening now, why didn’t they take care of it [over the past] 20 years. And who is responsible – this is what we’re trying to find out,” said Sheila Rogers of Winterport, whose 43-year-old son, Michael, has lived at Treats Falls since it opened more than 20 years ago.

The agency didn’t have enough money to operate, according to longtime board member Joan Logue of Orono.

“We started robbing Peter to pay Paul. That’s where we got into our problems,” she said.

The state asked the board to open five other small group homes for mentally retarded adults but a lack of funds forced them to be closed, said Logue, whose husband, Owen, also is a board member.

Don’t look to the state to be the bad guy here, said Bubar, pointing out that the department has oversight responsibility, not day-to-day management responsibilities.

“It’s the responsibility of the board of directors … to run the agency. That seems to have gotten desperately lost here,” she said. “The agencies are private, not for profit, and they have a board of directors who have a responsibility to keep things going well. They really don’t want us to micromanage, no organization does.”

Meanwhile, Ivolene Clapp of Maxfield can’t stop thinking about what will happen to her 57-year-old sister, Marsha, who has lived at Treats Falls for 13 years.

“Treats Falls was the answer to my prayers,” said Clapp, whose sister previously spent 17 years in a nursing home.

“They weren’t able to do all the things they could do at Treats Falls,” she said. “Here, they exercised her, she went to school, she went shopping. This really is hard to think they’d close.”

Bubar said the state is searching for another entity that might be interested in taking over the house and using it for a different purpose.