PLANNERS REJECT EXPANSION OF TEEN DRUG TREATMENT CENTER

Plans to expand an adolescent drug treatment center in Louisville were
dealt a setback by the Blount County Planning Commission Thursday.

A motion to approve a permit and site review plan necessary to expand the
Werner Center by 4,000 square feet failed by a 6-5 vote.

Commissioners J.C. Franklin, Gail Harris, Carl McDonald, Bill Proffitt and
Ed Stuckey voted yes.

Commissioners Larry Garner, Tom Hodge, Leroy Huff, Bob Kidd, Darrel Tipton
and Kenneth Melton voted no.

Planning Director John Lamb said he would ask the county attorney for
clarification on whether the Planning Commission would need to make a
formal motion to deny the permit.

What will happen next with the proposal is undetermined.

"We don't know," said Patti Hall, vice president of community relations for
the Helen Ross McNabb Center, which operates the Werner Center. "We haven't
made any decision. We have to go back to the board of directors."

The issue could end up in court, Tipton said earlier.

"There are other issues here that won't go away," he said. "My vote to turn
it down tonight is going to put it in a venue where it can be decided for
good."

The center provides residential and outpatient chemical dependency
rehabilitation for children age 13 to 18. The 24-bed facility is located on
39 acres at 3845 Holston College Road.

The center proposed a 16-bed addition for females.

Patients are referred by the state Department of Children's Services,
juvenile courts, parents, school systems or parents. It is a nonsecure
facility.

The commission bowed to the will of a group of concerned neighbors, who
expressed fear about security at the facility and asked that the request be
denied.

"We feel like it's just a matter of time before something happens,"
resident Jim Redmond said.

The Planning Commission had postponed the matter from December to give the
facility a chance to address these concerns.

Hall said the center agreed to several conditions including establishing a
10-person advisory board consisting of neighbors, adding a new supervisor
to the evening shift for security and adding a dedicated phone line for
neighborhood concerns.

The center also is buying 70 holly trees to provide a buffer from its
nearest neighbor and is sharing the cost of repairing another neighbor's
fence that was cut.

The center didn't go far enough, neighbor Bill Young said.

"They did not adequately address the issues and concerns we have as
neighbors," he said.

According to the Blount County 911 Center, the Blount County Sheriff's
Office received 47 calls related to the Werner Center between Jan. 1, 2000,
and Dec. 17, 2001.

The calls included four served warrants, seven assaults, 19 runaway and
missing persons calls, two vandalism complaints, seven sick-person calls
and eight disturbance calls.

According to Hall, all the calls to the sheriff's office were made by the
center staff itself. None came from neighbors.

Catherine Beals, a Louisville resident, encouraged the commission to
approve the site plan.

"The McNabb Center has done a wonderful job with the children," Beals said.
"They are well taken care of."

There was no zoning in place in the county at the time of the center's
opening, so there was no way opponents could prevent construction of the center.