The Town of Merrillville’s approval of a new drug treatment facility on the south side of town earlier this month will do nothing but subsidize Porter County’s drug problem, according to a resident against the project.
The council members who voted for the facility to set up shop at 8253 Virginia St. — Council President Rick Bella, and Councillors Marge Uzelac, D-4; Shawn Pettit, D-6, and Keesha Hardaway, D-7 – must not have talked to their constituents, Merrillville resident Bill Willams said at the July 23 council meeting, because the people he’s talked to in his neighborhood don’t want it.
The Board of Zoning Appeals approved for Harsha Recovery Center to move into Virgina Place, an assisted living center, and the council, after deferring the matter June 11, took up the issue at its July 9 meeting, which Williams said he attended.
“It’s common knowledge that Porter County has a drug infestation, and we have a drug rehabilitation facility with beds empty (in Merrillville) already, so why would we be importing Porter County’s issues to Merrillville?” Williams said during public comment. “There are seven people here representing the constituents, and the (four) people who voted (for) it – and you know who you are – are wrong.”
“I’ve talked to people in my subdivision, and nobody’s for it, so where are these votes coming from? Are you voting on your own or talking to people in your districts?”
Harsha Recovery Center is a residential facility that would keep patients for at least 30 days and up to a year, its attorney said previously. The BZA approved a set of three conditions Harsha offered to the town: that it would provide quarterly updates to the council and its neighbors covering operations and any issues or concerns instead of a yearly review; ongoing relationships with neighboring businesses to address problems and concerns; and installing a fence around the facility.
Uzelac asked at the July 9 meeting whether Harsha would be administering medication to patients, which the attorney said it would. Councilwoman Leona Chandler-Felton, D-3, who voted against the measure, asked that since Regional Mental Health, one of the town’s two existing treatment facilities, has open beds, why it thinks it would be different, to which the attorney said it has to do with the model the facilities use.
Councilwoman Shauna Hayes-Edwards, D-2, who also voted against the measure, asked if judges would be able to send patients to the facility under court order, and the attorney said they would.
In other business, Merrillville Police Chief Kosta Nuses reported that police recently dealt with an ongoing issue of “nonsense” happening in the Turkey Creek subdivision. Kids between the ages of 7 and 17 had been breaking into cars and other mischief, he said; officers returned most of them to their parents to handle.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.