Cutler residents challenge proposed drug treatment center

CUTLER – A proposal to create Maine’s first therapeutic community to treat opiate addicts at a former Navy base has run into resistance from petitioners in Cutler, who say they do not want the facility in their town.

The petition – signed by 142 of the town’s 623 residents – was presented to members of the Cutler Development Corp. on Tuesday.

The corporation is a group of community representatives authorized by Congress to determine the future use of the former Cutler Navy base. The group is reviewing two reuse proposals – one to establish a 127-bed residential drug treatment center and another to develop time-share vacation homes.

Both proposals were submitted in response to an Oct. 11 deadline, and members of the development corporation met Tuesday to obtain copies of the documents from John Holden of Eastern Maine Development Corp. and determine the schedule for the review.

A handful of Cutler residents also attended the meeting and asked if the corporation would accept a petition opposing re-use of the base as a residential drug treatment facility.

Richard Houghton, one of the organizers of the petition drive, said the group proposing the drug treatment center – which has sponsored two public meetings on the proposal – has had a lot of publicity, but that very few Cutler residents he has spoken with are in favor of the project.

“We believe that the former Navy base should be used in ways that more directly benefit the economic well-being of the residents of Cutler and the surrounding communities,” the petition states. “We strongly urge the Cutler Development Corp. to continue to seek alternatives for the reuse of the former Cutler Navy base.”

Corporation President David Eldridge, a Cutler selectman, said the corporation would accept the petition, but that he would be more interested in a petition after the proposals were read and there were better-attended public meetings to explain the project.

“From my understanding, Daytop is not what you think of when you hear drug rehabilitation,” Eldridge said, referring to a New York-based therapeutic community that is the model for the proposed drug treatment program.

If the members of the corporation are interested in the proposal following their review, there will be more public meetings and the group will not approve a project that the majority of townspeople oppose, he said.

The request for proposals gives the group the right to reject any proposal, and the corporation is continuing to pursue leads on other potential users, including genetics researcher Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, according to discussions during Tuesday’s meeting.

Over the next three weeks, individual members of the corporation will review each proposal using an evaluation form that includes criteria such as the number and quality of jobs that would be created; the amount of new tax revenue for Cutler; the environmental impact of the project; and the percentage of the base that will be reused.

The time-share proposal was submitted by the newly formed Sunrise Development Corp., whose principal owner, Chris Harrington, has developed time-share resorts in Greenville. Harrington did not return a message left on an answering machine at his office Wednesday.

EMDC’s Holden said Sunrise Development is interested in the former base housing, which includes a single-family home, 22 duplexes and four quadruplexes.

The Maine Lighthouse Corp., a newly formed private nonprofit corporation, is proposing to use the entire 55-acre base property for a drug treatment program and related activities, Holden said.

The effort to develop a residential drug treatment program in Washington County is spearheaded by Doug Chapman, a Bar Harbor lawyer, and the Rev. Gary DeLong, executive director of Maine Seacoast Mission.

The two began working last spring to address Washington County’s opiate abuse problem with Dr. Charles Alexander, medical director of Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth, and Dr. Stanley Evans, medical director of the Mercy Hospital recovery center in Westbrook.

After meeting with Washington County social service providers, law enforcement and court personnel early this summer, a group of community members – including two women from Cutler – visited Daytop Village Inc., a New York-based substance abuse treatment program that has 26 residential drug treatment centers nationwide.

Daytop Village centers are therapeutic communities – highly structured family environments where addicts work with one another and family members to overcome addiction and to acquire the range of skills they need to remain drug-free, according to information presented during public meetings this summer and fall.

During an Oct. 1 meeting, the group said the proposed drug treatment center at Cutler would employ more than 80 people the first year and pay $72,000 in lieu of taxes to the town. The facility could grow to 350 beds and a staff of more than 120 within five years, according to Paul Morgan, the group’s financial consultant.

Objections to the proposal expressed during the public meetings include the facility’s impact on property values and the concern that drug addicts – including those referred by the court system – would pose a security problem in a small fishing village without a police force.

The Cutler Development Corp. will meet in executive session Nov. 6 to discuss the results of the scoring of the proposals.