The Marbletown Planning Board took important steps towards full approval of a methadone clinic application in the town at its last meeting, on March 25.

The site involved is on Gagnon Drive, and the building has been a medical center for decades. The proposed site and use resembles a site operating in Sullivan County in Monticello.

During questioning by board members, Suzanne Tisne of Lexington Center for Recovery, the organization bringing the application, said they had searched Ulster County for a building that met all requirements. Chief among those was that it had to be set up in a medical center and zoned appropriately. The building on Gagnon Drive was unique in Ulster County that way.

Representing Lexington Center for Recovery were Bill Eggers of Medenbach and Eggers, surveyors of Stone Ridge, and attorney Mike Moriello.

The proposed use for part of the building will be for a medical office to be an Opioid Treatment Program and an Outpatient Methadone center to treat clients with opioid addiction issues.

Methadone is a synthetic opioid “agonist” that is both a powerful pain reliever but also a useful offramp for opioid addicts. Methadone provides no high, and acts to negate any high from opioids. Methadone is not addictive. It has been used for this purpose since the 1970s.

The planning board completed and closed the public hearing on the application.

The familiar issue concerning property values arose with both a comment from the audience and a repeat of that concern from board member Sharon Klein who said that her life had been impacted by addiction. “I’m triggered by it, I clearly am. It destroyed my life. My brother died of addiction, my father was an alcoholic.”

Klein asked about the effect on property values of having a methadone clinic operating in Stone Ridge. Tisne said studies have shown either no effect or minimal effect.

Klein turned to the problem of relapse. She said that some of the people in treatment go back to being criminals. She asked, “Do you have statistics on how many people fail and fall of the wagon?”

Tisne responded that advances have been made in treatment programs and retention rate is now 90%.

Klein, explaining that she was a real estate professional, noted that she was aware that the “stigma” surrounding this issue was false. However, she then asked, “Another thing is, why Stone Ridge? Why not Ellenville or Kingston where you have more of this urban population?”

That brought the response that the Gagnon Drive address was uniquely suitable in Ulster County and that Lexington had diligently searched the entire county.

Max Stratton, the board chair, remarked, “That building was the doctor’s office I went to as a child growing up here. If there’s a better building in New York State for this I have never seen it.”

He added, “Marbletown has an opportunity to show how this can be done right and offer help for what is a very serious problem.”

Discussion moved to signage. There will not be a sign advertising a methadone clinic placed out on Route 209. The only signage will be for a Lexington Center. The board also discussed screening and will require a six-foot-high solid fence between the facility and nearby residences.

The board voted unanimously to accept the EAF part 3 and then a Negative Declaration under SEQR.

The application will return to the board. Attorney Moriello said that while a full approval has not yet been granted it is very close to that.

About Lexington

Lexington Center for Recovery began in 1982 with the “Weekend Center”, a safe space for those with substance abuse issues. It continued with growth in Westchester County with a “children of alcoholics” program and expanded into its “Generations” program there. Roll forward to 2003 and Lexington began operations in Poughkeepsie and Beacon with Counseling Centers. In October 2004 they began operating a methadone clinic in Poughkeepsie, and have since expanded widely in the lower Hudson Valley, Duchess County and more recently, they opened a clinic in Monticello.