Pubdate: Fri, 17 Dec 2004
Source: Birmingham News, The (AL)
Copyright: 2004 The Birmingham News
Contact:  http://al.com/birminghamnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/45
Author: Joseph D. Bryant And Malcomb Daniels
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

METHADONE CLINIC EYES ALABASTER FOR TREATMENT CENTER

Files Letter Of Intent For Alabaster Treatment Center

A Bessemer methadone clinic owner has filed a letter of intent to open
a clinic in Shelby County, months after a similar plan by others
spurred community protest and a lawsuit.

In a letter sent to the state Health Planning and Development Agency
this week, Robert White lists Alabaster as the location for a proposed
methadone clinic known as Cahaba Valley Treatment Center.

Pubdate: 17 Dec 2004

Source: (fontfamily)(param)Arial(/param)(smaller)Birmingham News 
(AL)(/smaller)(/fontfamily)

Author: Joseph D. Bryant and MALCOMB DANIELS

Webpage:
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/110327861433260.xml

Methadone clinic eyes Alabaster for treatment center

Files letter of intent for Alabaster treatment center

Friday, December 17, 2004

JOSEPH D. BRYANT and MALCOMB DANIELS

News staff writers

A Bessemer methadone clinic owner has filed a letter of intent to open
a clinic in Shelby County, months after a similar plan by others
spurred community protest and a lawsuit.

In a letter sent to the state Health Planning and Development Agency
this week, Robert White lists Alabaster as the location for a proposed
methadone clinic known as Cahaba Valley Treatment Center.

White is a partner in Northwest Alabama Treatment Center in Bessemer.

Alabaster Mayor David Frings said Thursday he will strongly oppose
plans to put the clinic in Alabaster and believes many will agree with
him.

"It doesn't fit with the plans for the future of our city," Frings
said.

State Rep. Cam Ward said the clinic proposed for Alabaster will be no
more welcome than the one proposed for nearby Saginaw.

"We just don't want it anywhere in north Shelby County," said Ward,
who lives in Alabaster.

Alabaster City Council President Rick Walters said he would talk with
his colleagues about the proposal and "form a course of action."

Methadone is a prescribed drug taken by mouth to reduce the desire for
drugs such as painkillers and heroin. The clinics are private,
for-profit organizations. Clients typically pay $11 a day for a dose
of methadone.

Plans for the Alabaster center come after a lawsuit prevented a
methadone clinic from opening in Saginaw. In that case, Susan
Staats-Sidwell and her partners in the proposed Shelby County
Treatment Center won state approval to open a clinic but eventually
were blocked by a Shelby County circuit judge.

Judge Dan Reeves ruled in October that clinic owners had denied
Saginaw residents the right to participate in public discussion before
their plan received state approval. Reeves said the clinic's final
location was not made public until it was too late for meaningful protest.

Staats-Sidwell and her partners have filed an appeal with the Court of
Civil Appeals.

News of the Saginaw plan galvanized angry residents.

White testified on behalf of the Saginaw protesters during the court
hearings. He also spoke against Staats-Sidwell's clinic plan during
last year's state licensing hearing.

"My point was that they lied to the people down there in Saginaw,"
White said. "They lied to the powers that be in Shelby County and they
tried to slip this thing into a residential area, and it wasn't right."

Staats-Sidwell is a partner with White in the Bessemer clinic, but her
Saginaw clinic would have been independent of the partnership.

White said he and other partners at Northwest were planning an
Alabaster clinic long before Staats-Sidwell's Saginaw proposal.

Staats-Sidwell said White's involvement in the Saginaw court hearing
and protests were motivated more by business than ethics. "I didn't
steal anybody's idea," she said. "This is a competitive business, and
I was there first."

White said he doesn't expect a large protest over his clinic because
it would not be near homes. He did not specify a location.

"I hope we can come to a common accord with the people in Shelby
County," he said. "If the people come out and the people win, that's
fine."

Methadone opponents have begun to express disgust.

"I knew it was going to happen; I just didn't know when," said Alan
Edmonson, an Alabaster barbershop owner and Saginaw resident who
organized protesters against the Saginaw clinic. "We're going to fight
it. I'll fight it here just like I did in Saginaw."

White said he will follow the legal process and honor the state
board's decision. "We're not going to educate the public in the news
media and on television as to the pros and cons of methadone
whatsoever," he said.

White is a partner in Northwest Alabama Treatment Center in
Bessemer.

Alabaster Mayor David Frings said Thursday he will strongly oppose
plans to put the clinic in Alabaster and believes many will agree with
him.

"It doesn't fit with the plans for the future of our city," Frings
said.

State Rep. Cam Ward said the clinic proposed for Alabaster will be no
more welcome than the one proposed for nearby Saginaw.

"We just don't want it anywhere in north Shelby County," said Ward,
who lives in Alabaster.

Alabaster City Council President Rick Walters said he would talk with
his colleagues about the proposal and "form a course of action."

Methadone is a prescribed drug taken by mouth to reduce the desire for
drugs such as painkillers and heroin. The clinics are private,
for-profit organizations. Clients typically pay $11 a day for a dose
of methadone.

Plans for the Alabaster center come after a lawsuit prevented a
methadone clinic from opening in Saginaw. In that case, Susan
Staats-Sidwell and her partners in the proposed Shelby County
Treatment Center won state approval to open a clinic but eventually
were blocked by a Shelby County circuit judge.

Judge Dan Reeves ruled in October that clinic owners had denied
Saginaw residents the right to participate in public discussion before
their plan received state approval. Reeves said the clinic's final
location was not made public until it was too late for meaningful protest.

Staats-Sidwell and her partners have filed an appeal with the Court of
Civil Appeals.

News of the Saginaw plan galvanized angry residents.

White testified on behalf of the Saginaw protesters during the court
hearings. He also spoke against Staats-Sidwell's clinic plan during
last year's state licensing hearing.

"My point was that they lied to the people down there in Saginaw,"
White said. "They lied to the powers that be in Shelby County and they
tried to slip this thing into a residential area, and it wasn't right."

Staats-Sidwell is a partner with White in the Bessemer clinic, but her
Saginaw clinic would have been independent of the partnership.

White said he and other partners at Northwest were planning an
Alabaster clinic long before Staats-Sidwell's Saginaw proposal.

Staats-Sidwell said White's involvement in the Saginaw court hearing
and protests were motivated more by business than ethics. "I didn't
steal anybody's idea," she said. "This is a competitive business, and
I was there first."

White said he doesn't expect a large protest over his clinic because
it would not be near homes. He did not specify a location.

"I hope we can come to a common accord with the people in Shelby
County," he said. "If the people come out and the people win, that's
fine."

Methadone opponents have begun to express disgust.

"I knew it was going to happen; I just didn't know when," said Alan
Edmonson, an Alabaster barbershop owner and Saginaw resident who
organized protesters against the Saginaw clinic. "We're going to fight
it. I'll fight it here just like I did in Saginaw."

White said he will follow the legal process and honor the state
board's decision. "We're not going to educate the public in the news
media and on television as to the pros and cons of methadone
whatsoever," he said.
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