TUPPER LAKE - It's not quite time to panic about Sunmount DDSO closing.
Yet.
Courtney Burke, head of the state Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, told host Susan Arbetter Monday on the WCNY radio show "Capitol Pressroom" that the department plans to close its nine large developmental facilities.
"We are seeking to close all of our developmental centers by the end of 2014," Burke said when Arbetter specifically asked her if Sunmount would close.
Burke said the plan is part of a long-term effort to move people with developmental disabilities from larger institutions to more residential-based programs that began in the 1970s with scandalous treatment of residents unearthed at Willowbrook State School.
"We ultimately hope to see people as integrated in the community as possible, living the lives they want to live, having the home of their choice, having relationships with people that are important to them; all of those things I think need to be part of what we see in the future," Burke said.
But Tupper Lake's representative on the Franklin County Board of Legislators, Paul Maroun, who also sits on Sunmount's Board of Visitors, said Tuesday night that may not tell the whole story.
He said he wasn't familiar with the specific comments Burke had made and he plans to check into them today, but he is aware that a consolidation plan has been the goal for years.
"My guess is, on this, the developmental centers as we know them are going to close - huge big buildings - but you're still going to have staff to manage the community homes and residences, and we'll still have our CIT units that will not be moving," Maroun said.
The Center for Intensive Treatment houses people who have been ruled unfit to stand trial for criminal charges due to mental or developmental disabilities. Maroun said it's not an option to put those people in residential-style homes.
"I've heard this before, and I think in a general sense it doesn't mean that anyone at Sunmount OPWDD is going to lose their job because of this," Maroun said. "It may be consolidation as we know the facility today."
Still, it's hard for Tupper Lakers not to panic when they hear the slightest hint of the facility's closure. Sunmount is far and away Tupper Lake's biggest employer, with about 1,700 staff members in Tupper Lake and in group homes throughout the Adirondacks.
"I really didn't think they had any intention of closing Sunmount down," village Mayor Mickey Desmarais said in a Tuesday night phone interview. "If they do that, Tupper Lake is done for. Nothing can make up Sunmount. ... You'll shut this village and town down completely."
Desmarais said that if the plan is in response to budget pressures, there are better ways to save money. He said he's sure that most of the employees there would rather take a pay cut than just lose their jobs entirely.
Both Assemblywoman Janet Duprey, R-Peru, and state Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, were wrapped up in the final days of legislative session in Albany and hadn't heard about Burke's comments on the air yet Tuesday evening.
But Duprey said the facility is needed.
"Certainly Sunmount is an important economic piece in Tupper Lake and in the North Country, and they certainly serve an important role in the treatment of people with disabilities, particularly sexual offenders," Duprey said. "I mean, these are people who are never going to be out on the streets."
Duprey said she'll check in with OPWDD officials as soon as she can emerge from session.
"I will do everything I can to keep Sunmount open," Duprey said.
Little's spokesman, Dan Mac Entee, agreed that he would have to reach out to OPWDD officials to learn more about what Burke said.
"Obviously it's a huge employer, not only affecting Tupper Lake but that entire region, so it's certainly an issue that the senator is going to be concerned about," Mac Entee said. "But as I said, we would want to learn more details."
Messages left with the OPWDD were not returned as of press time today.
