TREATMENT CENTER FOR CITY MARKET QUESTIONED

NIAGARA FALLS - The leaders of one block club Thursday night questioned the
right of Horizon Health Services to open a treatment center in City Market
for those with alcohol and drug problems.

Michael Quarcini, president of the City Market Block Club, held a meeting
with representatives of City Hall, two other city block clubs and
representatives of the state Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services.

But no representative of Horizon attended the session.

Quarcini questioned the state representative on the legality and the need
for such a treatment center in the heart of the city's Little Italy. He
added that he and his wife have collected the signatures of 590 area
residents who stated that they are against such a facility opening here.

"Most said they'd be afraid to go into City Market to shop," Quarcini said
of senior citizens who live in the area. "The elderly walk from their
houses to City Market."

Edward T. Carter, a representative of the state Office of Alcoholism and
Substance Abuse Services, said that some of the clients at Horizon would be
ordered by a judge in a drug court to attend meetings at the center in City
Market.

Part of the whole concept of rehabilitation is to give patients choices,
Carter said.

"We want to make getting treatment as convenient as possible," he said. "If
it's a public safety issue, get more police here."

Carter added that he had never seen an increase in crime near any of the
clinics opened by Horizon.

The state has not yet issued an approval for the location in City Market,
but it has already given approval for a location at the Haeberle Plaza.
However, Horizons administrators apparently chose not to locate there.

David C. Polley, regional manager for the state Bureau of Program Services,
Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services, did provide the block clubs
some new information.

Horizon's current operating hours in the market are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Mondays and Fridays. Once patients would attend sessions here, the hours
would be from 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, Polley said.

Currently staff are working in the building, but no patients are being
counseled there, Polley said.

Polley added that when offenders decide that they would like to go to drug
court to seek treatment instead of incarceration, they would be sent to a
place such as Horizon. The state limits clients who are going to drug court
to nonviolent offenders.

"This is a core location. There are lots of things to draw people here,"
Polley said. "There are residents in this area who are current clients who
said this is very difficult to get out there (to other area Horizons
locations) in the places that we have."

Quarcini argued that even though Polley mentioned three sites in Erie
County that have Horizon sites, the climate on Pine Avenue is much different.

Pine Avenue is a heavily commercial area, he acknowledged, but the streets
behind it are all zoned for residential uses.

He also argued that clients coming to Horizons would not be coming to City
Market to shop. "They're not coming here to shop. They're in their houses
doing their drugs," Quarcini said.

Polley and Carter said the state has power to give Horizon or any other
treatment centers licenses to locate.

Councilman Paul A. Dyster said that there has been a great revitalization
in City Market and in the Little Italy section of Pine Avenue. He said that
such an office in the West Mall section of downtown would not be approved.

"This was not the sort of tenant that people expected to come here," Dyster
said.

Councilman Vince V. Anello said it appeared that the whole deal for the
opening of the Horizon office was kept a secret. "Why," he said, "should it
be kept a secret."