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KIPLING DRIVE MAY GET TREATMENT CENTER

'RECOVERY KENTUCKY' CALLS FOR PROGRAMS

A 100-bed regional substance abuse recovery center for males may be built on a four-acre lot at the north end of Kipling Drive adjacent to J.R.  Miller Boulevard near the Owensboro Country Club, a local agency said Wednesday.  The $3.3 million facility would be part of Gov.  Ernie Fletcher's "Recovery Kentucky" initiative to build 10 such facilities across the state using a peer mentoring system for the homeless and recovering alcoholics and addicts.  But that all depends on Lighthouse Recovery Program being chosen to act as administrator for the facility, J.D.  Meyer, the agency's board chairman, said during a presentation at the Catholic Pastoral Center on Locust Street.  The initiative calls for two facilities in each congressional district, and two districts already have one each.  Elizabethtown and Bowling Green, both in the 2nd District, have also expressed interest in having a recovery center, Meyer said. 

Lighthouse has a purchase agreement with the property owners, but the land - -- a small grass field backed by a wooded area -- would have to be rezoned and a few other kinks worked out before a Recovery Kentucky house could be built, Meyer said after the presentation, which was made to neighbors and some others interested in the substance abuse community.  The agency has applied for a $500,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank and expects a reply in June.  A reply to a second application to the Kentucky Housing Corp.  should come soon after, Meyer said. 

Lighthouse is also looking for $200,000 from the community, either in cash or in-kind contributions. 

Meyer said he would consider locating elsewhere if a donor came forth with the appropriate land.  But finding such a spot has been "like finding a needle in a haystack," he said. 

The agency would have to draw funds from the city's housing authority if the facility fell within Owensboro's limits, Meyer said.  However, because the potential site is in an unannexed pocket of Daviess County, Lighthouse can seek Kentucky Housing Corp.  funding while still having easy access to city services, he said. 

The state would pay for most of the construction of the facility.  Money from Section 8 housing and Community Development Block Grants would cover a portion of at least the first three years of an estimated $625,000 operating budget.  The Department of Corrections would pick up the rest with a per diem rate for 23 probated former inmates who would be in the program at any given time.  Meyer's brief presentation followed one by Jay Davidson, president and CEO of Louisville's The Healing Place, upon which Recovery Kentucky's peer mentoring system is based. 

Davidson touted the system as one that provides credible role models for substance abusers who have lost faith in clinicians.  Required tasks, such as job duties and attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, build a client's sense of responsibility, and peers instill accountability in one another, Davidson said. 

Meyer said Lighthouse already follows about 80 percent of the Recovery Dynamics model. 

Meyer and Davidson tried to plan ahead for neighbors' potential uneasiness about the Kipling Drive site.  Flyers were distributed in the surrounding area for the meeting and a similar one later that evening.  Addicts are not inclined to hang around recovery facilities, and clients don't want to be surrounded by drugs and alcohol, Davidson said in response to an audience question.  Meyer added that there would be a screening process for each client. 

"We're trying to do what we can to go to the neighborhood and alleviate their concerns," Meyer said after the first meeting.  "These are not the people that are getting in bar fights.  These are the people that want to improve their communities and better themselves."