By Emerson Drake
4/17/10
We’ve seen this same scenario before the City Council pretends to care, and when the cameras are turned off the concern for citizens goes away.
Last Tuesday night we witnessed Kristin Olsen and Chief Harden claim to care and say they would see what could be done for the beleaguered residents of Modesto Ave. near McHenry where the Methadone Clinic resides.
Neighbor after neighbor stood up and told a compelling tale of harassment and neglect from the clients and Clinic itself.
Despite the claims from those council members who are running for a variety of offices, we were told by one, he had waited in Kristin Olsen’s office for her for four hours to get the opportunity to discuss this with her.
Several residents told how they had been to Chief Harden to ask for help but had been ignored.This is how one resident (Modesto Ave Mike) later described it to the Council.:I am the person who spoke about how it is unsafe for his 11 month old daughter to play in her own yard.
Although she is not yet old enough to play outside I hope that when she is, she will be able to. I know this blog provides a brief synopsis of the council events, but I'm disappointed that the exact reason why it is unsafe for my daughter to play in her yard was omitted.She will not be allowed to play in the front yard while the clinic is operating.
There are many dangers directly attributed to this clinic such as speeding drivers, sketchy people loitering in and around my front yard, many cars have been hit by impaired drivers leaving the clinic, etc.I would like to believe that she can at least use her own backyard someday without these types of threats to her safety. But unfortunately she cannot.
I found a urine sample bottle from the clinic in my backyard. It has the name of the clinic, Aegis Medical, right on the label. What if my daughter had found it before I did and put it in her mouth? She could conceivably contract Hepatitis. It is an obvious breach in protocol that their biohazard is ending up in my backyard. The negligence is astounding.
I put up with being awoken at 5 am each morning either by cursing or loud car stereos that rattle the aged glass in my 90 year old home. I put up with people vomiting in my gutter. I put up with many daily nuisances thanks to the clientele of Aegis Medical and the lack of care by their staff.
But I cannot ignore what turned up in my backyard and the threat this clinic poses to my family on a daily basis.I've brought several complaints to the people of Aegis, such as the thousands of cigarettes that lay strewn throughout dry brush on the other side of the wall that borders their property from mine.. and they always get pushed under the rug and they don't deal with it.They serve far too many patients for the facility they inhabit.
There is inadequate parking which forces people to park up and down the street, blocking private driveways, in front of fire hydrants and many times simply double parking in the middle of the road.
The only real solution to this problem is for them to move to a new facility and out of our neighborhood.The residents of Modesto Avenue have had enough and that is why we came to the City Council meeting.
Now we do know this has been an ongoing problem and the residents have been asking for help for more than five years.I guess it takes an Assembly election to get Kristin Olsen’s attention.
Unfortunately for the residents of that street, our City Council just doesn’t care once the cameras are turned off.Once again you didn’t read about this in the Bee.
I wonder why?
