| Wellsville
residential treatment center for teens still causing concern
By Landon Bench
October 20, 2006 | WELLSVILLE -- Residents are up in
arms about a halfway house just 3/10 of a mile away
from their schools.
Jeremy Ellis, Mike Malm, and Geoff Cox, all Wellsville
residents, are very wary of Logan River Academy. Not
only is the academy close to Willow Valley Middle School,
it is also near to residential homes as well.
The academy is a "premier adolescent residential treatment
center" for troubled teens, ages 13-17. The website
for Logan River Academy lists thinking errors and anger
management as possible topics for group therapies available
there. It also says that current enrollment is 90 people.
"I'm just not sure how wise it is to put a group home
of teens with 'behavioral differences' next to homes
and a school," Geoff Cox said. "My imagination runs
wild with these kids that may have serious problems."
Cox said his neighbors have told him they have seen
the kids running through their yard, raising concern
among Cox and his neighbors. "I don't see a fence with
razor wire surrounding it," Cox said.
The threat of these kids with "behavioral differences"
isn't the only problem. According to Cox, Logan River
Academy is not properly licensed to be there. Through
e-mail correspondence, Cox told this reporter the LRA
obtained a "permitted use" license for a residential
treatment program that requires a conditional use permit.
Cache County code defines three types of residential
treatment facilities: residential facilities to help
those with disabilities, residential facilities to support
those temporarily displaced due to an emergency, and
residential treatment for those who have emotional or
behavioral problems.
Cox says the Cache County Code differentiates disabilities
from behavioral problems, a key distinction, he says,
because disability programs are designated permitted
use whereas residential programs are designated conditional
use.
The Planning Commission is "responsible for issuing
permits if location is 'suitable' and 'reasonable conditions'
imposed by the commission are fulfilled," Cox said in
his e-mail.
The Logan River Academy had not replied to any questions
or phone calls at the time of publication.
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