Dan's Papers - June 20, 2008 - Rehab: "Higher" Use?

The ongoing effort to turn Shelter Island's gracious old Ram's Head Inn into a high-priced alcohol and drug rehabilitation center now hangs on an interesting question: Is a rehab center a "higher" use than an inn?

Town Supervisor Jim Dougherty says that's the test the proposed new business would have to pass in order to get approval from the town zoning board. "Higher," in this sense, is meant to convey the notion of "better" - an improvement, a step up rather than a step down. The facility would have to provide value for the community and be less (or no more) "invasive" than the existing business. The Inn is open in the summertime (the restaurant and hotel are currently in full swing); the rehab would run year-round and attract, it's feared, a somewhat less genteel crowd. So, is turning a landmark hotel and restaurant into a rehab a step up, or a step down? The answer to that question probably depends on who you are and how you look at the world.

Joe McKinsey, an Amagansett-based businessman, who is in negotiations with the inn's present owners, James and Linda Eklund, would probably argue that it's a higher use since, he says, the center would "help those in need of treatment."

Who "those" are also depends on how you look at the world. The cost of a month's stay at Safe Harbor, the working name of the center, would be in the neighborhood of $40,000. Opponents of the plan fear the rehab's clientele will be drawn from that rather narrow slice of the population that keeps such places supplied with clients, and that the three-ring circus that often attends such folk will land squarely on the island. Most Shelter Islanders probably wouldn't walk as far as the nearest corner to catch sight of a celebrity, but that doesn't mean they haven't heard of Britney Spears.

An ad in the Shelter Island Reporter headlined "Just Say No" and placed by "concerned citizens" says the plan will bring as many as "528 addicts a year to the Island," increasing its "exposure to drugs and the drug culture." The ad calls this an "intrusion into our small residential town in which people pride themselves on not having to lock their doors." "No more!," it cries. "The downside for Shelter Island far outweighs any potential benefits to our community!"

McKinsey disagrees. He calls that kind of opposition "offensive and discriminatory." Along with helping to alleviate "rampant drug and alcohol abuse," he claims that the center will create jobs for Shelter Islanders and generally stimulate the local economy. He's also made a commitment to provide "scholarship beds" to locals in need of treatment.

Just how much value a rehab facility on Shelter Island would actually have for a Shelter Islander with a drug or alcohol addiction, whatever the cost of a stay, is an open question. "One way these places work is by taking addicts out of the environment where they are being enabled," said Cara Loriz, editor of the Reporter. Placing a local individual in a local facility, where his enablers are near at hand, she feels, doesn't adequately address the issues.

The locals don't seem particularly eager to climb into those scholarship beds themselves, or even turn down the covers for another local in need. A letter to the editor of the Reporter says, "The number of addicts living here is small, (but) dangerous enough as it is, and they certainly don't need to be pampered. Safe Harbor would only add to and compound the risk, as well as bring property values down. Quite frankly, who needs it?"

Shelter Islanders have also been threatened with the possibility that if the rehab deal doesn't go through, the Ram's Head might be sold to somebody who'd turn it into something even worse than a rehab - like an all-night disco. Presumably, such an operation would also have to meet the "higher use" test. But, it looks as though if the inn should become almost anything other than what it's always been, most Islanders won't welcome the change.

An application for approval by the Shelter Island Zoning Board of Appeals has not yet been made by Safe Harbor, but it's expected. The plan cannot move ahead without that approval. Safe Harbor also needs a permit from the State of New York to operate the facility. To get that, it must demonstrate that the facility is "needed" and non-invasive, meets quality standards for such facilities, and has community support. The zoning board will look closely at that last one before Safe Harbor gets its approval.

Ed Barr, a Shelter Island homeowner and a sponsor of the "Just Say No" ad in the Reporter says they won't get it, if he's got anything to say. Barr and other concerned citizens have already gathered more than 200 letters and e-mails and will circulate a petition. Their goal is to demonstrate that there is overwhelming opposition from the community. He makes several convincing arguments against the rehab center. Citing the experience of other similar facilities around the country, he said that many of these places start out the way Safe Harbor says it will, offering no detoxification program. In other words, clients have already been dried out a bit before they voluntarily sign themselves in. However, many of these establishments have been unable to fill their beds that way, and have been forced to offer detox programs as a way of bringing in more business. They then become an attractive alternative to somebody who's being threatened with jail. Who, Barr wonders, is going to willingly shell out 40 grand to come to Shelter Island in the dead of winter? Stuck with empty beds, might Safe Harbor not be forced to offer detox programs that will then bring even more problematic individuals to the Island?

Barr says there "are a thousand other places" to locate such a facility that would make more sense than on tiny, quiet, peaceful Shelter Island - places where the impact would not be so dramatic. Barr also points out that the recidivism or "fall off" rate in these programs runs as high as 85 percent, and that many clients don't wait until they get back home to fall off. He fears that such individuals would constitute a ready market for controlled substances on an island that already has a small, but very real problem in that area.

Barr does not intend for that or any of the rest of it to happen here. "This is the front line of defense," he says, meaning the zoning board approval, or lack of it. "The most important thing we can do is to stop it here. Then Albany won't touch it."

The zoning board, of course, needs to make sure that it's standing on firm ground if it decides to deny Safe Harbor the approval. Being able to show that the community is overwhelmingly against the place would shore up the position that Safe Harbor is a step down, not up, for Shelter Island.