Dudley House Still in Question
A year after licensing issues led to the closing of Dudley House, its future is still up in the air.
On Monday (July 20, 2009), the City Council will be asked to approve a $30,000 contract with a city-based group, Organization for Recovery, to operate the Putnam Avenue facility through Dec. 31, with promises from the city administration possibly to shift to outsourcing the substance abuse program.
The decades-long program has helped hundreds of clients overcome substance abuse and regain a place in society, but it lost its license (Correction: failed to obtain a license) in 2008 when new accessibility rules kicked in. By May 2009, all clients had left, and over the summer, work on rehabilitation of the building took place.
The collapse of the program led some officials and a citizens’ budget advisory committee to question why the city was in the rehabilitation business anyway, especially when many clients served were not from Plainfield. Pressure arose to shift the program to non-profit status as soon as possible.
At Monday’s agenda-fixing session, City Council President Rashid Burney challenged the resolution to provide $30,000 in operational costs by saying, “This is not what we talked about.”
But City Administrator Marc Dashield said the first step was to regain licensure and then a transition might occur in January.
Burney asked how soon the administration might know whether a transition would take place and Dashield said it could be known by October.
Possibilities include leasing the Putnam Avenue building to a designated operator more familiar with such facilities and funding sources, including both grants and payments for service from sending counties.
Early on at Monday’s meeting, the seats were crowded with people obviously interested in the issue. Many craned forward to hang on every word of the discussion of Dudley House. This writer left the meeting before public comment, so I am leaving it up to Dr. Yood and Mark Spivey to fill in the gaps. Sleeplessness from weekend noise, 4 a.m. garbage trucks, phone calls and other interruptions have left me rather fried in terms of ability to pay attention. Not to mention the macaw.
--Bernice Paglia
On Monday (July 20, 2009), the City Council will be asked to approve a $30,000 contract with a city-based group, Organization for Recovery, to operate the Putnam Avenue facility through Dec. 31, with promises from the city administration possibly to shift to outsourcing the substance abuse program.
The decades-long program has helped hundreds of clients overcome substance abuse and regain a place in society, but it lost its license (Correction: failed to obtain a license) in 2008 when new accessibility rules kicked in. By May 2009, all clients had left, and over the summer, work on rehabilitation of the building took place.
The collapse of the program led some officials and a citizens’ budget advisory committee to question why the city was in the rehabilitation business anyway, especially when many clients served were not from Plainfield. Pressure arose to shift the program to non-profit status as soon as possible.
At Monday’s agenda-fixing session, City Council President Rashid Burney challenged the resolution to provide $30,000 in operational costs by saying, “This is not what we talked about.”
But City Administrator Marc Dashield said the first step was to regain licensure and then a transition might occur in January.
Burney asked how soon the administration might know whether a transition would take place and Dashield said it could be known by October.
Possibilities include leasing the Putnam Avenue building to a designated operator more familiar with such facilities and funding sources, including both grants and payments for service from sending counties.
Early on at Monday’s meeting, the seats were crowded with people obviously interested in the issue. Many craned forward to hang on every word of the discussion of Dudley House. This writer left the meeting before public comment, so I am leaving it up to Dr. Yood and Mark Spivey to fill in the gaps. Sleeplessness from weekend noise, 4 a.m. garbage trucks, phone calls and other interruptions have left me rather fried in terms of ability to pay attention. Not to mention the macaw.
--Bernice Paglia
posted by Bernice at 11:23 PM
1 Comments:
I don't trust the administration to let Didley House go. If there was ever a test for Rashid Burney and the city council, this is it.
I hope that the council has a plan B for January. I fear the administration will come back with another exucse as to why the citizens need to keep this on its books.
Good cause, wrong owner. That was proved by the fact that the reason the grants ran out was because the city could not get the house up to standards in the allotted time. And they are going to run this - at tax payers expense? Not a chance.
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