RESIDENTS RALLY AGAINST CLINIC

FIMBY Meeting Rehashes Concerns About Methadone-Dispensing Facility Proposal

FRAMINGHAM -- What was billed as a meeting to organize grassroots
opposition to a downtown methadone clinic last night instead turned into a
more-than-two-hour gripe session.

As many as 50 business owners, residents and community leaders showed up at
last night's meeting, held by FIMBY (Framingham Is My Back Yard),
ostensibly to organize community opposition to the clinic.

Spectrum Health Systems hopes to open the clinic on Howard Street, near the
former Dennison factory complex. Residents have objected, claiming the
clinic should instead be at the MetroWest Medical Center.

Though organizers last night did gather the names of attendees with the aim
of forming committees to tackle parts of the clinic battle, last night's
meeting served largely as a chance for community members to rehash old
complaints.

"I don't like it," Sandy Norton, owner of Copier Pros, said of the proposed
clinic. "That's why I'm here. They're shoving it down our throat."

The process by which the clinic came to town wasn't the only complaint
residents dredged up for last night's meeting. Long-standing issues about
the clinic's decision to locate in Framingham and not other MetroWest
communities, the need for a methadone clinic and even issues with other
nearby social services all cropped up.

In a repeat of prior claims, FIMBY co-Chairman Larry Schmeidler challenged
the decision to locate a clinic in Framingham, claiming the dispensing of
methadone was aimed squarely at profit and not more altruistic motivations.

"It's the most highly profitable business in the U.S.," he claimed.

While Spectrum has identified about 50 addicts in the Framingham area,
Schmeidler maintained last night that the company's service is sure to
expand to other patients.

Selectman Ginger Esty raised the specter of the nearby SMOC wet shelter,
"which allows people to be taking drugs and drinking," and suggested
building a clinic nearby would only perpetuate the cycle of drug addiction.

"You have that population right up the street, so that population is
already here," she said.

The bulk of last night's complaints centered on Spectrum's use of the Dover
Amendment, which allows social service agencies to skirt local zoning if
their programs contain educational components.

Like many who attended last night's meeting, Schmeidler insisted Spectrum
is hiding behind the law to steamroll opposition to the clinic.

"That is basically a guise," he said. "The addicts are there to get their
treatment. This is not Ohio State, where they're getting credits."

Opposition to the Dover Amendment was so fervent last night, Esty delivered
a bizarre attack on former state Rep. Barbara Gray, who authored the law.

"In the department of who did what, you have to know our own Rep. Barbara
Gray wrote (the law) that allows them to do all this," Esty said. "So if
she comes near you to help, tell her you know."

Last night's meeting wasn't a complete repeat of past complaints, though.

Residents did hear from Richard Gardner, an urban planner who participated
in a Department of Justice study exploring the link between urban planning
and crime.

Though the study found a direct correlation between the way communities are
planned and crime rates, the study - which dates to 1971 - is now more than
three decades old.

Last night also saw MetroWest Medical Center Community Relations Director
Beth Donnelly reject claims that the clinic had been offered space in the
hospital.

"That is absolutely not so," she said. "We don't have the space."

While hospital officials did meet with Spectrum, they only delivered a
message that the hospital had recently vacated space nearby, she said.

The hospital is in the process of nearly doubling the beds in the emergency
room, she said, so space for Spectrum is simply not in the cards. "The
hospital does not have this space," she said. "It's not available. That was
the statement we made to them."

While FIMBY prepares to do battle with Spectrum, the town continues this
week to talk with the agency about settling a pair of looming suits.

FIMBY supporter Frank Reilly, however, said the town could not strike a
deal without the support of Town Meeting, and last night vowed to fight any
settlement.

While town bylaws allow selectmen to settle lawsuits that total less than
$25,000, Reilly suggested the law may face a legal challenge if the
settlement doesn't come to Town Meeting. "This is not a little case," he
said. "We cannot allow them to slip that under the door."

In the meantime, he said, FIMBY and supporters will work to organize a
massive, townwide public hearing on the Spectrum clinic, and plan to submit
written comments to the state objecting to the clinic's proposed location.

That meeting could be organized within the next two weeks, Reilly said.

"The reason we came down here is to form an organization that can quickly
rally the opinion of the businesses and abutters and residents," he said.
"There are things you can do. The fight is there, and you can win it right
now, but you have to get organized."