Potential Campton rehab center up for debate Monday
The Campton Hills Plan Commission Monday will resume consideration of the Kiva Recovery Center, a private substance abuse facility proposed for a former boys school.
The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Congregational United Church of Christ, 40W451 Fox Mill Blvd., and a report on water/sewer infrastructure and fire protection needs are expected to be presented to the commission, which makes recommendations to the village board.
Residents have spoken out in past hearings in opposition to the plan to convert the former Glenwood School for Boys, 41W400 Silver Glen Road, into a 96-bed, inpatient treatment facility.
Some residents have said the facility would pose a safety risk, strain police and fire resources, be bad for the village’s image and hurt property values.
A group has set up a website, stopkivarehab.com, in an effort to rally residents to pressure village trustees, who have the final say.
“We are a village now. We can stop this type of outside, negative influence from coming to the community we live in and love,” the website states.
Repeated emails to the site and phone messages to organizers were not returned this week.
The average stay for someone recovering from alcohol or drug addiction would be 30 to 60 days and the cost for a 30-day stay at the 120-acre campus would be $30,000, according to a FAQ section on the village of Campton Hills website.
During public meetings in August and September, Kiva officials have portrayed the center as a voluntary, high-end treatment facility for professionals recovering from addictions to alcohol and drugs.
Patrick Griffin, an attorney representing the team proposing the Kiva Center, acknowledged this week that the facility is for substance abuse, so it could house recovering heroin and methamphetamine addicts.
But he noted that all clients taken to Kiva will have already gone through detox somewhere else.
“By the time people come to the facility, they’re medically stable. They’re not going to be going through withdrawal symptoms. What the facility will address is the addict. It’s a complete program,” Griffin said. “The high-end part of this facility is not that the addicts are more deserving. It’s the nature of the treatment.”
Griffin also said the management team has offered to pay a la carte fees for additional fire and ambulance service if demand is high or exceeds projections.
Opponents of the plan say the facility would be treating nearly 1,200 people a year.
Griffin said that if Kiva is approved, the owners hope to treat about 240 people the first year, assuming 30 full beds and 45-day stays.
By the fourth year, they hope to be operating at about 80 percent capacity, which would equate to about 600 people a year.
“When they begin, they’re going to have a smaller number (of patients) and they’re going to increase that number presumably because they have a good project,” Griffin said.