NEWBURY, Vt. (WCAX) – The Vermont Department for Children and Families has informed Newbury residents that the state is no longer pursuing a secure facility for troubled youth that would be located in the town. The announcement comes as welcome news for those who have long opposed the project.
“I’m just happy they came to their senses,” said Zaka Chery, who along with Jette Mandl-Abramson, have been vocal critics of the six-bed secure facility since it was proposed several years ago. They abut the property and say safety was just one cause for concern. An even more pressing one, they say, is the remote location off a road in disrepair. “Especially if you live up here right now this winter, it was impassable for three miles.”
“You have to be accessible and we are not accessible here. I mean, it’s 25 minutes to anywhere,” added Mandl-Abramson.
Despite unanimous opposition from the town’s planning board, DCF continued ahead with the project and ultimately got the green light from The Vermont Supreme Court back in December.
But in a surprise reversal last week., DCF Commissioner Chris Winters informed the town in a letter that the project was off. “Given the recent completion of the temporary facility in Middlesex and the imminent decision to be made around a permanent secure treatment program through a Request for Proposal for two other sites, our plans have changed,” Winters said in the letter.
The state now says the property could be used in the future for a “home-like setting for children with developmental services needs.”
Rep. Joe Parsons, R-Newbury, is the chair of Newbury’s select board. “All the concerns that were brought up by everybody were very valid concerns of a town that doesn’t have the transportation and the police coverage and the EMS. We just don’t have those services,” Parson said.
The news that the secure facility has been scrapped is a relief to neighbors, but the ordeal has still left them with a bad taste in their mouths. “Going on four year battle where the state has just been relentlessly pushing this through, you know legal battles. The amount of money that has been spent,” Mandl-Abramson said.
While critics of the project all agree that the town is not the right location, they also all agree that the need for this type of facility is likely only going to grow.
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