Hearing scheduled for methadone clinic
PERRY TWP. – Township supervisors are asking for support from residents in keeping a methadone clinic out of the area. Supervisors A.J. Boni and Janet Galla alerted residents that a business is once again seeking a special exception to operate a methadone clinic in the township. Boni said a hearing will be held before the Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Public Service Building, located at 22 E. Main St. in Uniontown.
“We, the supervisors, are against this 100 percent,” Boni said.
Boni said residents who don’t want a methadone clinic located in their community need to attend the meeting and voice their concerns.
“There is strength in numbers,” he said. “We need to show them we don’t want a methadone clinic in our township.”
Anyone needing more information on the hearing can call the township building at 724-736-2334.
Perry Township has been dealing with issues surrounding a proposed methadone and detoxification clinic for several years.
In May 2005, the Zoning Hearing Board granted a special exception that gave the clinic permission to operate.
However, the clinic never officially opened because of public outcry, which resulted in the issue being brought before Fayette County Judge Steve P. Leskinen.
In March 2006, lawyers representing Perry Township and Frazier School District asked Leskinen to overturn the ruling, saying it would be unsafe for a methadone clinic to be located at the proposed area, noting that the clinic would be close to a school and located on an already unsafe section of Route 51.
The methadone clinic would have administered methadone, an opiate drug used in substitution therapy to treat people addicted to heroin and other opiates, out of a building that housed a former lawn tractor shop at the intersection of Route 51 and Rehoboth Church Road.
The property is zoned business (B-1), which means a drug rehabilitation facility administering methadone has to have a special exception to operate there.
Leskinen overturned the zoning hearing board’s ruling after hearing the case and remanded the case back to the zoning hearing board. The case was then sent to state court before being remanded back to the Fayette County Court of Common Pleas.
In May 2008, Sheryl Heid, assistant solicitor for Fayette County, petitioned the court to shut down a detoxification clinic, located in the same building as the proposed methadone clinic, arguing that a special exception allowing a detoxification clinic to operate at that location was never granted.
Heid also alleged that buprenorphine was being administered at the clinic to treat people with opiate addictions.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved buprenorphine for use in 2002 to treat addictions to opiates such as heroin, morphine, oxycotin and fetanyl. Buprenorphine works by alleviating withdrawal symptoms, according to the FDA’s Web site.
Courts then ruled the facility was not permitted to dispense buprenorphine.
In September 2008, the Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board issued a ruling that allowed the facility to remain open as a medical office, but not as a substance abuse treatment facility.
Fayette County enforces zoning for Perry Township, Boni said, adding that there are no areas in the township where with a methadone or detoxification clinic can operate without first receiving a special exception.
Boni said it’s been a year since the special exception was denied and that the business owners are allowed to ask for reconsideration, which is what they have done.
“There are other places in the county where a methadone or detoxification clinic is a permitted use. They need to go there,” Boni said. “A methadone clinic does not fit the criteria for what Perry Township has designed in its comprehensive plan.”