TUPPER LAKE – St. Joseph’s Addiction Treatment and Recovery Centers, based in Saranac Lake, plans to open a new outpatient clinic here.

St. Joe’s would convert a former cat shelter at 190 Main St. to better serve people dealing with addiction in the Tupper Lake region. The Pet House, as it was called, operated from summer 2008 to fall 2009.

Representatives from St. Joe’s attended the town and village Planning Board meeting in June to discuss the development. The board welcomed the idea and told planners they need a special use permit and consensus at a public hearing scheduled for July 27.

“This has been part of the local service plan for Franklin County for the past two years,” said Russ Cronin, chief financial officer at St. Joe’s. “We service clients from Tupper Lake, and one of the problems we’ve had has been the travel distance for them.”

Cronin gave visitation statistics to illustrate this need. He said Tupper Lake patients at the Saranac Lake clinic currently average 15 treatment days, while Saranac Lake patients average 68 days.

There one other outpatient facility for drug addiction and recovery in Tupper Lake: North Star Behavioral Health offers services for people dealing with substance abuse and addiction at a satellite office in the Adirondack Medical Center clinic. (Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said there was no other addiction outpatient service in Tupper Lake.)

Susan Lawson of Tupper Lake, a board member of St. Joe’s, and her husband Tom own the building that would house the clinic. The couple offered a five-year lease to the organization for $1 per year for the first two years, and rent based on square footage for the remaining three.

The building is ornamented Adirondack-style with cedar twigs and bark. Adirondack Wood Wizards built it in 2000 as a space to work on carpentry materials, before selling it to the Lawsons.

Cronin said St. Joe’s is ready to open the clinic the moment it receives approval. It recently completed renovations to make the entrance and bathrooms handicap accessible, and it’s looking to furnish the building soon.

The front of the building would have two counselor offices for one-on-one meetings and a reception area. The back has two large rooms meant for group meetings, which St. Joe’s site supervisor Shelley Whiteman said would host relapse prevention and self-help meetings that include, but aren’t limited to, the groups Narcotics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon (for family members of drug users). In addition to her role as a site supervisor for the Saranac Lake outpatient clinic, Whiteman would supervise the Tupper Lake site.

The Tupper Lake Community Engagement Coalition has been looking for places to train people in naloxone, commonly known by the Narcan brand name, an antidote to treat narcotic overdoses in emergencies. At the group’s last meeting, Whiteman said the group rooms at the proposed clinic could support Narcan workshops.

Cronin said the facility would begin operations with a single full-time clinician, rotating professionals from the Saranac Lake facility, plus two part-time administrative assistants to handle appointments and reception.

“There are three of us who will be coming over and looking to build a caseload before we expand,” Whiteman said.

Cronin said a clinician typically handles about 20 clients. If the caseload increases as expected, he said, the Tupper Lake location could have up to three on-site clinicians within three years.

An open house to meet the staff and tour the proposed clinic will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 21. Cronin hopes to gauge public interest of the facility ahead of its public hearing on July 27.

So far, the clinic has received letters of support from Franklin County’s Board of Legislators and Department of Social Services. Local government officials also seem to welcome the idea.

“I think it’s something we needed for a long time, and I’m grateful to (CEO) Bob Ross and everyone at St. Joe’s for continuing to push this facility in Tupper Lake,” said village Mayor Paul Maroun. “We know that there’s a need here, and there are parts of Hamilton and St. Lawrence County that might benefit from this as well.”

Village Code Enforcement Officer Pete Edwards added, “It’s a beautiful building, a nice location and placed in an end of town that was dying. To get a vacant commercial building up and running again, that’s a necessity for the community nowadays.”

Cronin said the Lawsons have offered an additional five-year lease for the property, which, if accepted, would guarantee a decade of addiction services for Tupper Lake.

The clinic would be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with group meetings hosted after hours throughout the week around 5 p.m.