OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford The Dunkirk City School District wants to sell this building on Fourth Street.

BestSelf Behavioral Health is clarifying its plans for a building it purchased on Fourth Street in Dunkirk.

There won’t be an opiate clinic — in fact, there won’t be patients at all, said Stephanie Perrotti, marketing and communications director for the Buffalo-based mental health care provider.

Instead, it is basically a move of BestSelf’s current facility in Fredonia, which is a home base for clinicians who do outpatient treatment.

“We are literally just packing our stuff and moving,” she said, with no new programs planned at the Fourth Street building.

Perrotti explained the clinic moving to Dunkirk treats people who have barriers to getting inpatient therapy. Clinic workers meet patients outside the building — at home or in a park, for example.

BestSelf will send letters to everyone in the Fourth Street neighborhood explaining the plans for the building, Perrotti said, adding that the company does that in every neighborhood it moves into.

The neighborhood includes Northern Chautauqua Catholic School, which is in the same block as BestSelf’s planned new office. Another BestSelf representative sought to allay concerns raised about the move by Andrew Ludwig, principal of NCCS.

Ludwig told the OBSERVER its previous article on the BestSelf move “raised quite a stir” in the NCCS community, due to fears that opiate addiction treatment would take place near the school. However, he said the “article also motivated Best Self representative … to visit me (at the school). (She) has fully explained to me how the building at 88-92 East Fourth St. will be used. I have no concerns with her plan.”

Ludwig added that both he and BestSelf representatives are concerned about the condition of a building that sits between the two properties.

In an email thread the OBSERVER was copied to, Police Chief David Ortolano told Ludwig that officers patrol the area regularly and have not seen any suspicious people either inside or outside the building. City Attorney Michael Bobseine said the property, at 86 East Fourth St., is privately owned.

As for BestSelf’s new location, it’s the former site of a Dunkirk City School District reading clinic. The district’s Board of Education agreed to sell the building to BestSelf for $160,000 in May.

The sale must be approved by district citizens in a December vote. However, according to the resolution passed by the Board of Education, the district will let BestSelf occupy the property prior to the closing of the sale.