Trudy Petrovitz is only one of many Lincoln County residents whose lives have been affected by drug and alcohol abuse. The 79-year-old Petrovitz has lived in North Waldoboro for 45 years and lost two sons to drunk driving accidents.
“We hadn’t been in town for six months when our oldest son got in a car with a young man who had been drinking,” Petrovitz said. Her youngest son died about 20 years later, also in a drunk driving accident.
“There’s a lot of people in this county who desperately need more support,” Petrovitz said. “In their hearts, people know who needs this.”
Petrovitz said she supports a recently developed plan to establish a sober living facility for male Lincoln County residents in the former Curtis House building on North Mountain Road in Jefferson.
At a meeting of the Jefferson Board of Selectmen on July 19, several Jefferson residents raised concerns about the location of the house and the impact it would have on the Jefferson General Assistance program.
The idea for the sober house started with Bobby Whear, owner of the Mill Pond Bed & Breakfast in Damariscotta Mills. Whear had been in contact with the Seven Tree Foundation, who owns the Curtis House.
“They asked me what I thought the county needed,” Whear said. “This county needs a place where an alcoholic can go and be around other people dealing with the same issues.”
There are currently no residential facilities for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts in Lincoln County. There are no Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings in Jefferson.
Whear, a recovering alcoholic and member of Lincoln County Communities Against Substance Abuse, has been working with Healthy Lincoln County and Youth Promise to develop a plan for the sober house, based on the long-standing Oxford House model.
Oxford Houses are democratically run sober living facilities in which groups of recovering alcoholics and drug addicts live together and help each other stay sober, find jobs and develop basic life skills such as cooking, cleaning and balancing their finances.
There are currently six Oxford Houses in Portland and around 1500 nationwide, according to a business plan for the sober house in Jefferson provided by Whear and Joyce Steel, Substance Abuse Prevention Coordinator for Healthy Lincoln County.
In an Oxford House, each member pays an equal share of the rent and takes an equal amount of responsibility for upkeep on the house. In most Oxford Houses, the residents determine the rules for the house democratically.
Residents are required to find employment, must attend regular meetings in a 12-step program and must be largely self-sufficient. The house, however, provides a place for them to get support and to be surrounded by others who share their struggles.
Because of the rural location of the former Curtis House, Whear and Steel said they are making a few changes to the typical Oxford House model.
The Jefferson sober house will be staffed by a manager, who will live in the house, they said. He will be a recovering alcoholic or drug addict, so that he’ll understand the issues residents are facing, but will have many years of proven sobriety, Whear said.
The Jefferson house will also explore alternative options to outside employment for the seven to 10 residents that would live in the house at any one time, Whear said.
The former Curtis House sits on about 10 acres of land. Some of that land could be used to start a vegetable garden or other in-house industry to help support the residents, Whear said.
In an interview on July 16 on the back porch at the Mill Pond, Whear and Steel said that their biggest challenge would be finding the start-up capital needed to get the house up and running.
They need $22,000 to pay for a van to transport residents, cover first month’s rent and security deposit and furnish the house, according to their business plan. The plan also calls for $8000 in working capital.
Once they’ve raised the money to open the house and settle their first set of residents, the facility will be financially self-sufficient, Whear and Steel said. Whear expects the house to be at full capacity within a year of opening.
Whear approached the Lincoln County Commissioners to request county funds to pay the start-up cost. While he was told that they were in full support of the project, the Commissioners said they could not afford to fund it.
Whear and Steel have now turned to private fundraising. They’ve been in contact with local groups such as the Elks and Rotary, but have yet to hear back from any major donors.
The Lincoln Sheriff’s Office, however, approached Whear to set up a meeting between the Jefferson sober house, Sheriff Todd Brackett and Two Bridges Regional Jail Administrator Mark Westrum. At that meeting, the group will discuss possible funding from the jail and sheriff’s office, Whear said.
The business plan for the sober house states, “Research data on halfway houses indicates, conclusively, that alcoholics and addicts…are much more likely to succeed…if they live among others sharing common goals.”
Many alcoholics and addicts are either incarcerated or have previous offenses, and the recidivism rate for individuals with drug and alcohol problems is much higher, Whear said.
“It’s a no-brainer cost saving measure,” Whear said. “It costs $100,000 a year to house someone in jail. If we can keep 10 people out of jail for a year, we’ve saved the county a million dollars.”
Jefferson residents who live near the former Curtis House are less enthusiastic about the plan.
Several residents attended the Jefferson Selectmen’s meeting on July 19 to voice their concerns about the plan. The selectmen, two of which had no prior knowledge of the plan, did not comment on the issue.
School Board Member Ellie Day said she was concerned about the proximity of the proposed location to the Jefferson Village School. Other residents said they worry about where residents of the sober house will go if they are kicked out of the house for failing to remain sober or other violations of house rules.
“If they are denied access to the house, they’re homeless,” said Scott Woodman, who lives on Old County Road in Jefferson near the proposed location of the sober house. “Then they become the town’s problem.”
State law mandates that anyone who approaches the town for help be allowed to fill out an application for General Assistance, said Town Clerk Lynne Bond. Those who qualify are provided with town-funded help in finding housing and other necessities, Bond said.
“Often we connect them with facilities in other areas, but it’s an expense to the Jefferson taxpayers,” Bond said. An individual does not need to be a resident of Jefferson to qualify for General Assistance from Jefferson. “If they get a ride down to Waldoboro and go to the town office there, Waldoboro has to pay.”
This is an area where the proposed Jefferson sober house will differ from other Oxford Houses, Steel said in an interview on July 20.
“We’re not going to kick them out onto North Mountain Road with no help and no one to call,” Steel said.
The Jefferson house will have a protocol in place for how to deal with residents that violate the requirement they remain sober, and it will involve expulsion from the house, but it will not be so immediate as to leave the person stranded, Steel said. “If they need hospitalization, they’ll be transported.”
At the selectmen’s meeting, Jefferson Code Enforcement Officer Stanley Waltz said that the move from the Curtis House, a youth treatment facility, to a sober house, an adult facility, constitutes a change of use.
The issue will be brought before the Jefferson Planning Board at 7 p.m. on Aug. 3 at the Town Office.
Many of the issues that have been raised will be solved to a large extent by maintaining a rigorous selection process for applicants to the house, Whear said. “The sad thing is, we’re going to be able to be choosey.”
Anyone seeking more information about the sober house or the fundraising effort should call Bobby Whear at 441-2313 or Joyce Steel at 563-6123.
