Column

Neighbors may object, but methadone clinic belongs

By C.T. BOWEN
Published July 1, 2007

Let's take a drive.

Our route is Washington Street from the south. If you start at Massachusetts Avenue, outside the city of Port Richey, motorists are greeted by a street-side sign advertising a place for rent and then half a dozen other properties for sale. There is trash left along the edge of the road near a small community of aging mobile homes. Obviously, it is an area in transition.

Inside the city limits, there is the George Cook pocket park and a few more for-sale signs amid the modest but well-maintained houses and then professional offices.

The street terminates at U.S. 19 on the north where - what else? - a fireworks tent sits next to newly installed landscaping intended to help beautify the multilane highway through Port Richey.

A short walk to the south of the United Way offices, the Salvation Army and a couple of churches sits a medical office building now undergoing renovations. In other words, it is nestled near a strip of agencies that are used to helping people.

The building sold earlier this year for just more than $1-million. Next door, construction has begun on new townhomes, the kind of growth the city of Port Richey has been seeking as an upgrade to the housing stock away from the coast.

But some of the people in this mixed-use neighborhood along Washington Street in Port Richey don't like the mix of uses.

People trying to kick addictions to prescription painkillers, Oxycontin or heroin will be coming to the medical building for methadone treatments. They won't live here. Rather, like at any doctor's office, they will come at appointed times. Medical professionals will work there and provide treatment and counseling. Insurance plans will be billed.

It's not some fly-by-night scheme. The clinic will be run by Operation PAR (Parental Awareness and Responsibility) Inc., a 37-year-old nonprofit agency formed to help provide parents the resources to help battle drug additions.

Operation PAR has run a narcotic addiction center on Ridge Road for the past 10 years, but is outgrowing the space. That led to the search for bigger quarters and the Washington Street medical offices. The list of active patients has grown from 450 to 550 over the past year.

"If there wasn't a need, we wouldn't be here, " said Thad Lowrey, Operation PAR's government relations director in Pasco.

The agency understands the apprehension. The city manager took a tour. The city's building official consulted with the city attorney before issuing the appropriate building permit to allow the renovations to begin. The City Council member who lives nearby acknowledges there is nothing the city can do legally to prevent Operation PAR's clinic from opening.

That is of little consequence to the neighbors who came to the City Council meeting five days ago to voice their objections.

One said building official Ed Winch should have notified them when the clinic inquired about the property and later applied for its permit. Sorry, that's not in his job description. The clinic didn't require a rezoning or conditional use permit. It is a medical operation going into a building formerly used for a medical operation.

Others raised concerns about the clientele, saying children's safety could be at risk. How? Children are more at risk from Washington Street traffic than from people who have recognized their addictions and are seeking treatment from an accredited facility.

The signs at the city limits warn of Port Richey's zero tolerance toward crime. That shouldn't be a problem here, either. Times staff writer Camille C. Spencer perused sheriff's reports for the Ridge Road clinic and found the most high-profile crime to be a broken window.

Mostly, the Washington Street neighbors are fearful of change within their community. That is understandable, but a promise to keep fighting Operation PAR is not.

"We aren't offended at people's concerns, " said Lowrey, "but our goal is in six months they won't even know we're here."

[Last modified July 1, 2007, 00:48:49]