PLEA MADE TO REVIVE INPATIENT REHAB UNIT

DURHAM -- As Howard Clement spoke up during a Durham County Commissioners'
meeting Monday, he warned he wasn't there as a 20-year City Council veteran.

That morning he was wearing just one hat. The hat of a father who has
nearly lost his daughter to drug addiction, he said.

More than 50 people filled the commissioners' room to support plans to
revive an inpatient substance abuse treatment program at Oakleigh, a Durham
Regional Hospital building that long housed a detox program but closed its
doors two years ago.

Clement told commissioners and the audience that his daughter, Marcella
Clement, recently spent 57 days in jail for drug-related behavior.

"Since January, 12, 2003, we've had to pay $200 a day to the state of New
Jersey for my daughter's treatment," he said. "Two hundred dollars a day
that could be easily spent in Durham, City of Medicine."

Luckily, he can afford such expensive treatment, he said, but for many
Durham parents such inpatient treatment is out of reach.

The County Commissioners voted unanimously to ask Duke University to
support a new program at Oakleigh. Commissioner Phil Cousin volunteered to
serve as a liaison between the group, mostly Durham pastors, and Duke
University, which through its lease of Durham Regional Hospital controls
the building.

Several pastors began pushing for an inpatient program at Oakleigh last
year. The program would not require conversion to any religious
denomination and would include classes on job and interpersonal skills and
personal development.

Oakleigh, which is adjacent to Durham Regional, was hailed as a
state-of-the art facility when it opened in 1985. More than 10,000 came to
Oakleigh for a 28-day treatment before it closed.

The one-story, 24-bed center has been vacant for two years, but during the
December ice storm served as a county special-needs shelter. It housed 40
to 50 people for a couple of days, Durham Regional officials have said. A
market-rate lease would range from $390,000 to $450,000 a year.

The group has contacted several community agencies to secure support, said
Thomas "Bernie" Bass Jr., a Clayton pastor and executive director of the
Durham Community House of Recovery, a halfway house for addicted women.

"It is time for this community to put the money where the mouth is and quit
talking about doing something and do something," he said.

A rehab program is "much needed" in Durham, said Police Chief Steve
Chalmers. Recently, police arrested a person charged with about 150
burglaries, committed in a 45-day spree, and found that drug addiction had
been the driving force behind the crimes, he said.

According to the Rev. William-Hazel Height, the Greater St. Paul Missionary
Baptist Church senior pastor who is spearheading the push to reopen
Oakleigh, the building is not the group's only option. But since it has
housed a drug rehab program in the past, it is the group's preference, he said.

The idea is to have private companies, churches, other nonprofits and grant
money fund the initiative, he said. A final budget wasn't available Monday.

According to Durham-based Alcohol/Drug Council of North Carolina, 22,000
people, or slightly less than 10 percent of Durham County population,
suffered from addiction in 2000.

In 2001, the Durham Center, the county agency overseeing mental health,
learning disability and substance abuse programs, faced a $1.4 million
budget shortfall. To tighten its belt, the Durham Center pulled its clients
out of Oakleigh, among other measures.

Without county-subsidized clients, Oakleigh closed within weeks. At the
time the county pulled out of Oakleigh in April 2001, the program cost
about $551,000 per year.

Drug prevention is one of the county's priorities, Commissioners Chairwoman
Ellen Reckhow told the group. MaryAnn E. Black, Duke University's director
of community affairs and a former county commissioner, had intended to be
at the meeting but had a conflict of schedule, she said. Black relayed to
her that Duke is interested in working with the group, Reckhow said.

In other business Monday:

- -- The County Commissioners set a May 27 public hearing on the 2003-04
budget. County Manager Mike Ruffin will present his budget recommendation
Monday, with commissioners scheduling several meetings this month to likely
pare down the spending plan. Last year, commissioners approved a $497
million budget, raising the countywide tax rate by 2.4 cents, or 3.3 percent.

- -- A month after more than 20 people came to a meeting to support extending
health and dental benefits to homosexual and heterosexual partners of
county employees, three other people spoke in support of the measure.

According to Reckhow, the issue is "under study" and county employees are
researching whether health insurance costs would rise. The county also
plans on a survey of its employees to gauge employee interest in receiving
benefits, she said.

Also last month, supporters of domestic-partner benefits turned in a
petition signed by 80 Durham attorneys. The attorneys challenged County
Attorney Chuck Kitchen's legal opinion, which advised against providing the
health benefits, and called for a second legal opinion.