DRUG-TREATMENT PROPOSAL HAS NEIGHBOURS CONCERNED

Locked Youth Facilty Planned For Grounds Of St. Amant Centre

By Aldo Santin A group of St. Vital residents is concerned about a
plan to rezone a portion of the St. Amant Centre grounds to build a
rehab centre for severely addicted young people.

Nancy Cooke said she and her neighbours understand the proposed
facility provides a valuable service but added she doesn't know why
it has to be located next to a residential neighbourhood.

"As we understand, these kids will be locked inside so it can be
located anywhere," Cooke said, adding she's also concerned about St.
Amant's long-term plans for its sprawling grounds.

The new facility is a "secure", seven-day "drying-out" facility for
kids aged 12 to 17 years whose parents have obtained a court order to
send them for treatment.

"This is a facility of last resort for young people with severe
addiction problems," said Gwenda Nemerofsky, manager of
communications for Marymound, a private, non-profit agency providing
a range of therapeutic and educational services to young people and
their families. Her agency is proposing the facility.

Nemerofsky said the facility will contain 10 beds -- five for youths
sent there by court order, and five other beds for youths who attend
the facility voluntarily.

The structure is a modular, prefabricated, one-storey building, 7,535
square feet in size, which would replace a 100-year-old building
elsewhere in the city that Marymound has found to be inadequate.

Nemerofsky said 150 youths were treated through the same program at
the other facility in the past year and only four of those managed to
escape, adding they fled through open windows. Nemerofsky said the
new building would be totally secure, with windows that don't open
and all doors controlled electronically.

But the St. Amant site is zoned for residential units and has to be
rezoned for the new facility and granted a variance that will allow
it to be constructed closer than regulations allow to another
youth-treatment centre.

A hearing on the zoning variance is set for Wednesday before the
Board of Adjustment. The city of Winnipeg planning department has
endorsed the project, saying it fits into the concept of therapeutic
services that St. Amant already provides and would have little impact
on the surrounding residential neighbourhood.

Nemerofsky said a public meeting was held Wednesday with area
residents to explain the program and how it's been invaluable to the
youths and their families.

Nemerofsky said some residents expressed concerns about youths who
escape and also about the danger posed by drug dealers who might hang
around the facility.

"From our experience, when kids run away from a treatment facility,
they don't stick around the neighbourhood -- they run back home or
they go somewhere where they can keep doing drugs," Nemerofsky said.
"And drug dealers don't hang around treatment centres."

Cooke said that in addition to residents' concerns about locating the
Marymound facility next to a residential neighbourhood, she's also
concerned about St. Amant's long-term plans for its grounds. She said
she wonders what other plans St. Amant has for its property that it's
not telling residents.

Carl Stephens, president of St. Amant, said that while the St. Amant
site has expansive grounds adjacent to the Red River, the property
was not designed as a park.

"It's simply vacant land that we're not using now," Stephens said,
adding St. Amant is reviewing all its options on how best to utilize
its property.

Stephens said residents who moved into the nearby south St. Vital
neighbourhood were aware St. Amant operates a treatment facility on
the property and residents should anticipate that other similar
services could be moved there.

Stephens said St. Amant agreed to lease its property to Marymound
because both institutions operate similar programs, adding, however,
that it's possible that St. Amant may want that property back for its own uses.