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The Athens County Comissioners meet on Nov. 1 to discuss a new security camera system and load limits on roads.

New women's recovery house to come to Athens soon

A non-profit organization may soon build a women's recovery house in Athens County to aid women struggling with substance abuse addiction.

Mary Lynn St. Lawrence, a representative for Women for Recovery, told the Athens County Commissioners on Thursday that heroin presented one of the biggest problems for women dealing with substance abuse, as it can be delivered to homes and apartments and is as cheap as a pack of cigarettes.

"A few years ago, alcohol was the major problem among women," she said. "Now, almost all the women we see are heroin addicts." 

St. Lawrence said the heroin problem also caused infants to become dependent if exposed to the drug in the womb — a condition known as neonatal abstinence syndrome.

However, the proposed recovery house will not serve as a treatment facility.

"We're not claiming that this is a treatment facility ... or that we are going to be curing anybody of addiction," St. Lawrence said. "The treatment facilities (in Athens County) are serving their need."

Instead, the recovery house will be a place where women can go once they leave treatment facilities.

"What happens is women get out of the treatment facility ... (and) then they have nowhere to go. Many of them go to a place in Chillicothe, some of them go up to Cambridge ... but there's no place here," St. Lawrence said.

St. Lawrence said the house will not accept violent offenders, sex offenders or people who have offended within 500 yards of a school, but the house will accept women even if they have a felony or a misdemeanor record.

The commissioners supported the proposal.

"It's something that's been on our mind for a while, we try to do what we can when we can, but somebody has to run the program," Commissioner Lenny Eliason said.

He said one halfway house in the area failed a few years ago because victims kept falling back into the same pattern once they left the house.

Funding for the house has not been secured, but St. Lawrence said the group is willing to match the amount the commissioners grant them.

"We only have $100 now, but a whole lot of spirit," she said.

John Knouse, a member of the Athens Conservancy, also met with the commissioners in order to acquire a mile-long piece of unused property currently owned by CSX Transportation in order to connect the Moonville Rail Trail, a hiking trail that follows the path of a former railroad, to Athens.

Knouse said the conservancy has tried to purchase the property from CSX in the past, but CSX has ignored their requests.

He suggested the property could be obtained through eminent domain, stating that CSX hasn't exercised responsibility for the land in the past four decades.

Otherwise, the conservancy could possibly acquire the land by rallying the owners of adjacent land to acquire the CSX property by filing a claim stating the land has not been used — which would potentially cost thousands of dollars —  or by tracking down the descendants of the original owners of the land, who sold the land to CSX, he said. The land was sold to CSX in 1852.

The commissioners said they would have to talk to the Athens County legal counsel before making a decision.

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