Editor:
I recently found out that Rio Arriba County plans to re-purpose the Hacienda de Salud Nursing Home as a 100-bed drug treatment facility.
I fully support the need for a drug treatment facility in our city and am thankful to Rep. Susan Herrera and Sen. Richard Martinez for securing funds for such a facility. I am also grateful that they and Gov. Lujan-Grisham secured an additional $1 million to build a nursing home on Industrial Park Road in the Health Commons area.
However, I have several concerns:
• Why are we re-purposing a nursing home facility into a drug treatment facility (literally feet away from Fairview Elementary School) and then attempting to build a new nursing home with only $1 million? That seems ineffecient.
• What happened to our community plan? If we have a Health Commons area, shouldn’t a treatment facility be placed in that area?
• If a bar cannot be next to a school, how can we allow a drug treatment facility serving 100 addicts from in/out of state to open with only an 8-foot wall separating it from a school?
• Did the county follow procurement code for awarding a $1 million dollar bid to Darrin’s Place? I cannot find records of an RFP advertised.
• The City of Espanola spent hundreds of thousands to develop a community plan. Why can’t we adhere to it instead of further scattering community services, such as the homeless shelter, women’s shelter, treatment facility and methadone clinic) across our city?
Marcie Davis
Santa Cruz