DAVIS PROPOSES DRUG TREATMENT CENTER BY

ST. PETERSBURG - St. Petersburg Police Chief Goliath Davis III hopes to turn
a former nursing home into a drug treatment center.

Two years after he endured a barrage of criticism for rejecting federal
money aimed at putting drug users in jail, St. Petersburg Police Chief
Goliath Davis III is pushing a proposal for a different sort of institution
for them - a drug treatment center.

The chief's plan makes use of a former nursing home that was closed after a
resident's death and became a symbol of the state's failure to properly
monitor such institutions.

Thursday, Davis asked interested social service agencies to submit proposals
to transform a two-story building at 1735 Ninth St. S., the former St.
Petersburg Health Care Center, into a drug treatment facility with 75 secure
beds.

At least three agencies have expressed interest thus far, said Tom de
Yampert, manager of the city's housing programs. One impetus may be that
whatever agency wins the project will not have to purchase the building or
the 1.8-acre lot it stands on.

This unusual financial arrangement has developed since Florida's Agency for
Health Care Administration shut the home down last year after one resident
beat another to death with a bureau drawer.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development held the mortgage
and agreed to sell the property to the city for $100,000 if the site was
slated for public use, a deal that is expected to close Sept. 15, de Yampert
said.

Enter Davis, the city's first black police chief, whose advocacy of drug
treatment drew fire two years ago when he rejected hundreds of thousands of
dollars in federal Weed & Seed money earmarked for the apprehension of those
using or dealing in drugs. The money was restored in an arrangement with the
federal government.

``This has been one of his focuses from the very beginning - to
decriminalize the drug problem and to treat it,'' said de Yampert. Indeed,
the Weed & Seed money put aside for catching drug users might be diverted to
the operation of the drug treatment facility.

Davis could not be reached for comment.

The thinking behind the city's purchase price, said de Yampert, is that if a
drug treatment facility did not open, the building would in all likelihood
be razed. Then the property would be worth only $94,000.

The agency in question will have to come up with an estimated $500,000 to
refurbish the building to make it suitable for inpatient and outpatient drug
treatment, de Yampert said. Then it has to come up with the money to run the
program.
[Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 823-7732 or
SPThompson@tampatrib.com]