Renovation has begun at 305 Main St., Dunkirk, where the methadone clinic will be located. OBSERVER Photo by Anthony Dolce

Chautauqua County should be getting its first methadone clinic this summer.

During the county Board of Health meeting, Misty Pennington, mental hygiene program coordinator in Chautauqua County, shared that Alba de vida of Buffalo is renovating 303 and 305 Main St., Dunkirk for the clinic. “Barring any unforeseen circumstances, they hope to have the Dunkirk methadone clinic up and running in July of this year,” she said.

Meanwhile, Alba de vida is currently hiring various staff members and has purchased a van to create a mobile Medication-Assisted Treatment vehicle to start off in Dunkirk and travel to more rural parts of the county. “That is certainly good news for our folks that struggle with transportation,” said Pennington. She did note the van will not be distributing methadone.

Alba de vida is coordinating with Dunkirk’s opioid court as well.

Pennington noted the nurse practitioner is going to start doing telehealth with individuals next month for the mobile program. Andrew O’Brien, county Board of Health member, noted there is a need for a methadone treatment throughout the county, including Jamestown. “My concern is how we take the next leap which is to provide the same services for people in the south county,” he said.

Pennington said although she agrees with O’Brien, the cost is still too high. A few years ago, there was talk about bringing one in Jamestown which would have been operated by UPMC Chautauqua, however the cost exceeded $500,000. “Unless some additional funding sources becomes available for those renovations, I don’t see any other partners being financially able to step up and meet that need right now,” she said.

O’Brien wants to see county leaders create an action plan to make it happen. “I don’t think it’s acceptable in this day and age to say ‘well, there’s no plan for the south county.’ My feeling is the county community services board and the director in community services has a role in saying ‘OK, this plan didn’t work out, which sometimes happens, so lets go to plan B.’ … Now that we’ve got the good news about a potential July (opening), I would like to see some leadership that’s much more open,” he said.

Pennington agrees and hopes that at least for now, individuals in who need to visit a methadone clinic will be able to go to Dunkirk, which is a 40 minute trip, instead of having to go to Buffalo, which usually takes a full day round trip. “Possibly the best place to start, until a more formal plan could be developed would be on transportation linkage,” she said.

According to Pennington, there’s about 125 residents who currently participate in the county’s Medication Assisted Treatment program.

The location of the Dunkirk facility, which is next to Weiss Hardware, once housed OTB.