A plan to open a drug treatment center in their neighborhood is being questioned by Kapahi residents. The proposed alcohol and drug treatment center at the former Wong’s Care Home in mauka Kapahi was the subject of a meeting with
A plan to open a drug treatment center in their neighborhood is being questioned by Kapahi residents.
The proposed alcohol and drug treatment center at the former Wong’s Care Home in mauka Kapahi was the subject of a meeting with Mayor Bryan Baptiste organized by former Kaua’i County Councilman Jesse Fukushima.
About 60 of Fukushima’s neighbors attended the meeting Tuesday night.
They told the mayor that are afraid that those receiving treatment at the center may run away, and that criminals may descend on their community if the HanaMana Healing Center begins operations at the former care home located near the mauka end of Kawaihau Road.
HanaMana Executive Director Hans Tangelder said such concerns are borne of fear and lack of knowledge about the proposed project.
“I really wish the neighbors would stop basing their position on unfounded bias and allow truth and compassion to prevail,” Tangelder said in a message faxed to The Garden Island. “It would be nice for the islandwide support we enjoy to become more vocal.”
Tangelder was not invited to the meeting held at the home of Harold and Norma Jean Brown. Their home abuts the former Wong’s Care home.
The proposed HanaMana project has become the a test of Baptiste’s resolve to take concrete steps to halt the use of illicit drugs like crystal meth on Kaua’i. The drug is commonly known as “ice” in Hawai’i, and Baptiste has launched a distribution of bumper stickers that state “End the Ice Age”.
“The neighborhood was pretty much concerned about safety, the traffic, and they asked about what the applicant was applying for,” Fukushima said of the meeting in a call to The Garden Island.
Fukushima said people attending the meeting made numerous requests to the mayor to move the proposed project to some another location on Kaua’i.
Baptiste was not available for comment Wednesday.
Harold Brown said no decision on allowing, or not allowing, the drug treatment center to be located at Wong’s Care Home was made at the meeting.
“The mayor was very receptive, and answered the questions,” Brown said. “It was a nice meeting, to see where he was coming from.”
The Kaua’i County Planning Commission is set to resume a public hearing on the proposal at the Lihu’e Civic Center on Tuesday, Jan. 13.
Proponents of the project are seeking various permits, including a use permit and a Class IV zoning permit.
“Overall, the meeting displayed that the community, the neighborhood is very concerned about this application,” Fukushima said.
Some residents raised questions about the qualifications of the proponents of the center to operate it, Brown said.
He said it was his understanding Baptiste will support the project as long as the “applicant meets the qualifications.” “But he has no way of knowing whether that is so,” Brown said.
The responsibility of verifying the credentials of the applicant rests not with the county departments, but with the state Department of Health, Brown said.
This message was relayed to the residents who attended the meeting, he said.
Brown said he was not entirely convinced the procedures for permitting the project were practical.
“Anyone can come and take out an application, to buy a place such as Wong’s Care Home, go get a use permit and go to the Department of Health for certification,” Brown said. “It seems kind of backward. But that is just the way the system is set up.”
Tangelder said the program would use substance abuse professionals and staffers, and that a system would be in place to help patients.
The executive director for the proposed HanaMana Healing Center project is Tali S. McCall, who has a doctorate degree in social work from the University of Hawai’i, according to materials Tangelder faxed to The Garden Island.
Some critics have suggested the proposed HanaMana center be put on the grounds of Mahelona Hospital in Kapa’a, where a substance abuse program known as Serenity House once operated.
Kaua’i has been without a residential drug-treatment center since Hurricane ‘Iniki struck in 1992 severely damaged the Serenity House facility, and the project was shut down.
Roy Nishida, head of the county’s anti-drug initiative, said placing a treatment center on the Mahelona Hospital grounds isn’t likely to occur soon because the proposed project is privately funded.
“Hans has to ask Mahelona (to put his project there),” Nishida said. “It is something he has to decide that he wants to do, not the state of Hawai’i, not the county of Kaua’i or whoever.”
HanaMana representatives have scheduled a public meeting from 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Jan 10 at the Kapa’a Neighborhood Center to explain their project.
HanaMana offers substance abuse prevention, education, residential treatment and rehabilitation services.
Treatment will include but not be limited to individual, group and family counseling.
HanaMana officials said the organization believes in a “grassroots community-based model of treatment,” using a “biopsychosocial approach to treatment focused on the individual.”
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
