Koloa residents strongly
oppose treatment center

By Trish Moore
Star-Bulletin

LIHUE -- A group that wants to open a treatment home for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts in a Koloa housing area met stiff opposition from neighbors yesterday.

At a public hearing before the Kauai Planning Commission, Koloa residents said they feared that their children who play in a nearby park would be at risk from those seeking treatment at the facility.

The nonprofit group Club Sober Inc. is seeking a permit to use a 4,500-square-foot house as a residential treatment center for recovering alcohol and drug users.

The proposed center, located on a 1.5-acre lot, would house up to 20 clients for stays of 30 to 45 days. The center residents would be detoxified before arriving and unable to leave the grounds unless escorted by a staff member, according to the permit application.

Melinda Barnes, executive director of Club Sober, said the center would accept only clients who are motivated to be drug- and alcohol-free and willing to become productive members of society.

Kauai has three outpatient substance abuse treatment centers, but has lacked a residential center since June 1997 when Serenity House closed down.

Mardi Winters, a substance abuse counselor, said there are "serious problems getting people the treatment they need on Kauai."

Sending patients off island for intensive recovery in a residential facility means cutting them off from vital family and community support systems, Winters said.

Opponents say they don't dispute the need for a recovery center but that it shouldn't be located in a residential neighborhood.

Barnes said she's "searched diligently" the last two years for a suitable location for the treatment program. "I've looked at apartments, hotels, hospital housing. I've been open to anything."

Barnes and other supporters say substance abuse recovery happens best in a homelike setting.

"The only way people heal is in community," said D.J. Colbert, a volunteer with the organization, and who has been clean and sober for 16 years. "Recovery can't possibly work in an industrial warehouse."

Koloa resident Leonard Zalopany submitted a petition with 450 signatures from Koloa residents opposing the center.