A much-discussed plan to move a downtown Albany methadone clinic uptown has stalled — for now.
Camino Nuevo, located in the Hauf Building at 175 Central Avenue, sees several hundred clients every day for addiction treatment, substance-abuse recovery programs and related services.
But since it opened in 2015, city officials have maintained that downtown Central Avenue is not an appropriate location for a methadone clinic.
Numerous complaints by neighborhood residents and businesses resulted in an ongoing effort by city and county officials to move Camino Nuevo somewhere else.
In January, County Executive Dan McCoy wrote a letter to County Legislature Chair Joanne Cunningham, asking the body to authorize a $100,000 appropriation to United Way of the Capital Region to sell its building at 1 United Way to Camino Nuevo. That money would match $100,000 contributed by the city of Albany to expedite the move from Central Avenue.
The most recent target for relocation is near the Pine West Plaza area of Washington Avenue Extension. That plan has met with fierce opposition from local businesses there. Outraged business owners dashed off a letter to an unnamed county legislator detailing several reasons why the clinic is not a good fit for the area, including the fact that many of the businesses in the suburban office complex serve children and seniors.
Republican County Legislature Minority Leader Frank Mauriello says a county resolution was introduced in January. "And at that general committee meeting, I asked the question if the neighboring businesses were notified that this proposal was there, and I really didn't get a straight answer from, from my colleagues. So at the January meeting, we had someone from that business community pick up opposed to the move, and all of a sudden the chairwoman of the legislature decided to send it back to committee. And so did go back committee, and at the next committee meeting in February, it was tabled," said Mauriello.
Democratic County Legislature Chair Cunningham: "My understanding is that the mayor's office is continuing to work on this issue. And I know they had a successful early March stakeholder discussion with I think, the police department was there and others business owners, folks in in the community where the, I guess Camino Nuevo was intended to move. And they did that after actually we raised some questions with the mayor's office, and they very quickly set up a discussion with community members and stakeholders. But at this point, the resolution that the county, the county, part of it has been tabled,” Cunningham said.
With the process of relocating Camino Nuevo now in committee, Mauriello says he shares the public safety, policing and quality-of-life concerns surrounding the proposed relocation of Camino Nuevo, including how Camino Nuevo patients would get to the clinic, citing lack of a bus line and the danger of walking along Washington Avenue Extension, which has no sidewalks. Mauriello adds he's not really sure what's going to happen next.
"The Republican and Conservative conference, is strongly opposed to using public dollars to relocate a private drug rehab center, from downtown Albany, out to Washington Avenue Extension, all the way out very close to New Karner Road. I mean, we understand the negative impacts of having that rehab center on Central Avenue, that, you know, it's negatively affecting the residences there. But I think we're just moving the problem from one location to the other. And it's really not the county's responsibility to do this. This is more of a city issue than a county issue," said Mauriello.
A representative of the Acacia Network, which operates Camino Nuevo, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. County Executive McCoy was not available for comment.
