Pubdate: Fri, 11 Nov 2005
Source: Concord Monitor (NH)
Copyright: 2005 Monitor Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.cmonitor.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/767
Author: Lauren R. Dorgan

REHAB CENTER FOR FARM? PERHAPS

Plan From Restaurateur Draws Little Local Fire

When he heard about a restaurateur's idea to open a drug and alcohol 
treatment center at the Daniel Webster Farm, Floyd Sargent thought it 
would generate controversy around Franklin.

But eating breakfast and chatting with the other regulars at Mr. D's 
on Main Street every morning, he has yet to hear a negative word.

"I haven't heard any myself, and I get around quite a bit," said 
Sargent, a member of Franklin's planning board who owns a property 
maintenance business. "I was a little surprised."

Last week, a national conservation group bought the farm from 
developer Elmer Pease II. The Trust for Public Land plans to put 
agricultural easements on the land and sell most of the 140-acre 
parcel to neighboring farmer Dan Fife.

But the question of what to do with the property's seven buildings - 
including the historic Webster farmhouse and a 19th century orphanage 
- - is wide open. The Trust is a "bridge" organization, in the words of 
project manager Julie Iffland, which cobbles together money to buy 
land from developers and then looks for local interests to take over.

Alex Ray, who owns the Common Man restaurants, pitched his idea at a 
public meeting Nov. 3. He hopes to take out a 50-year lease on the 
buildings and said he would invest about $4 million into fixing them up.

Ray envisions three nonprofit, self-sustaining programs: A 28-day 
residential treatment center that would offer counseling to50 
clients; a halfway house where recovering addicts could stay for six 
months; and a hospitality school that would offer two-week seminars.

At last week's meeting, hosted by the Franklin Historical Society, 
residents tossed out a wide variety of other ideas for the buildings, 
such as turning the complex into a college or making it a historical 
theme park.

Colin Cabot, president of the Webster Farm Preservation Association, 
says he continues to get feelers from other interested people, though 
no other proposals have been as complete as Ray's.

"There's nobody who's really come up with a plan that makes economic 
sense," Cabot said last week. "The logic of Alex Ray's proposal is 
impeccable. . . . Alex Ray is a great entrepreneur, and somebody who 
can bring that kind of energy to something is fantastic."

This week, Ray explained a bit more about where his idea came from. 
As a recovering alcoholic, he's seen first-hand the dearth of 
treatment facilities in New Hampshire, and he wants to help.

"I want to do something that makes me feel like I'm contributing," 
Ray said in an interview this week. "That I'm doing something other 
than just feeding people. Feeding people a little more than food."

A growing problem

Ray thought he would be presenting to a small group last week, maybe 
8 or 10 people. When he got to the Franklin VFW hall and saw that the 
idea session drew about 80 residents, he hesitated.

"I said 'Oh man, I can't present this to them, because I might get 
ripe tomatoes in my face,'" Ray said. "By 10:30, after they all 
pitched, I figured, 'Well, I'm here, I might as well pitch it.'"

While he anticipates that "naysayers" may come forward to oppose 
bringing recovering drug addicts and alcoholics into town, Franklin 
mayor Dave Palfrey thinks that the school and treatment program would 
be good for Franklin's economy.

"I think it would be nice to get the buildings occupied, and Alex Ray 
had a nice idea that could be beneficial to Franklin, as well as the 
entire state," Palfrey said.

Experts say there is a desperate need for more addiction treatment 
programs in the state.

When she heard about Ray's idea, Cheryl Wilkie was "breathless."

"The need is overwhelming,"said Wilkie, a drug and alcohol counselor. 
"It would be an incredible asset to this community to have a place 
where people could go."

Wilkie, who works as a consultant for the Merrimack County Attorney's 
office, says she's constantly frustrated by the lack of treatment 
facilities. Just yesterday morning, she said, she got a call about a 
heroin addict with no place to go.

"To watch people suffer who are asking for treatment . . . I'm 
speechless," Wilkie said.

At the same time, Wilkie said, the problem has been getting worse, 
particularly in the last few years.

"I've been working in this field for 18 years, and in the past four 
years, I've been to more funerals, had more clients die, than I had 
in my whole career," she said.

Ray said he's seen many people who need help fighting an addiction.

"There's limited help out there,"Ray said. "(Programs are) dropping 
like flies, and the need isn't."

At least 14 treatment programs across the state closed between 1992 
and 2002, according to New Futures, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Peter Powell, a friend of Ray's who serves on the board of New 
Futures, said that often a crisis leads to seeking help - help that 
is not only expensive, but also hard to find.

He was drawn into working on addiction issues after struggling to 
find help for someone close to him. "I spent two days looking on the 
Internet, making phone calls, trying to find a place somewhere in the 
country where this person could find help for their problem,"he said.

Ray's proposed treatment facility, which would take people who've 
already been through medical detox and give them intensive counseling 
for about a month, would require clients to pay up-front and out of pocket.

Powell said the problem of insurers refusing to pay for anything 
beyond detox is a serious one and something New Futures is looking at.

"It's like trying to send someone off to college and pay for the 
whole thing without loans," Powell said.

But at the same time, Powell said, "Alex doesn't want to wait for the 
world to be fixed before he starts providing treatment."

The next step

Ray is talking to the Trust for Public Land and the Webster Farm 
Preservation Association, a local group that will purchase the 
property from the TPL in April.

"Our first meeting was in the parking lot after the meeting, and that 
was very valuable," Ray said. "The next day, I called a couple of 
them on the phone, and we will continue our dialogue until we reach 
an agreement or we reach an impasse."

Meanwhile, there are many other ideas for the land. At last week's 
meeting, most of the speakers talked about making the Webster Farm a 
historic destination. Some talked about making it into a Sturbridge 
Village-like attraction -others envisioned a museum.

The farm was once owned by Daniel Webster, a 19th century statesman 
who served as a senator and secretary of state. In 1871, an orphanage 
was built on the land for children whose parents had died in the Civil War.

Most everyone seemed to like the idea of burnishing the image of both 
Daniel Webster and the city of Franklin.

Rosemary Mellon, a Franklin resident, touted the Sturbridge Village 
idea at last week's meeting.

"(Ray) came in with a business proposal. . . . I'm just John Q. 
Public, and this is my idea," she said, adding that she thinks the 
ideas are compatible. "I think you can mix both."

Just getting the buildings up to code will be costly. A preservation 
architect at last week's meeting estimated that it would cost $7 
million to get all of the buildings in full working order.

And neither Cabot nor Leigh Webb, president of the Franklin 
Historical Society, has heard about any movements to put money or 
structure behind the idea of showcasing the farm's history.

Dan Fife, the neighboring farmer who has signed a purchase and sales 
agreement with TPL for the land, says that walking around the 
property he sometimes finds marbles. On the barn walls, there's what 
he calls "hieroglyphics"-along the lines of "Frankie Loves Susie"- 
left over from the farm's century of use as an orphanage.

He says he'd like to see the buildings become some sort of facility 
to help disadvantaged teenagers of today. At the same time, he thinks 
housing for the elderly would be the most viable use financially, and 
he likes the idea of turning the buildings into a school of rare trades.

"But as I said, the project is out of my hands in that a lot of 
people have a lot of other ideas and ambition and money," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman