Citing a need to preserve “the public peace, health and safety,” the Bangor City Council voted Monday night to repeal the local ordinance that was crafted to regulate the expansion of methadone facilities in the city.
The action effectively clears the way for Penobscot County Metro Center to increase its caseload from 300 to 500 patients. The council’s decision followed last month’s ruling by a federal judge that the city’s ordinance was discriminatory.
Penobscot Metro’s attorney, John Doyle of Portland, said his client planned to seek state approval for the expansion on Tuesday.
“They are poised, assuming we get the license tomorrow, to begin intakes on Wednesday and Friday — hopefully to bring in approximately a dozen individuals into treatment this week, and they’ll continue in future weeks. It involves a process to have physician examination and so on, but they are ready to go,” he says.
One Bangor resident, Tyson Cartwright, objected to locating the methadone clinics in business and shopping areas.
“I’d like to see more involvement by the community health agencies such as hospitals, clinics, etc. and have those treatment centers in those facilities or close by instead of putting them square in the center of a business district where you have families going to dinner, or lunch, buying things,” he says. “It doesn’t make sense to concentrate everything where everybody is.”
The council’s vote was unanimous.