ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — In a unanimous vote the Albany Planning Board approved a new location for the Camino Nuevo methadone clinic located on Central Avenue.  At Tuesday’s meeting concerned residents and business owners voiced their concerns one last time.

“They say this is a more safe place, that way we don’t mind no people, here,” said José, a patient at the Central Avenue methadone clinic who says these places are very important.

As the methadone clinic is poised to move, some say the decision for tonight’s meeting was rushed.  “She commands that this independent body perform a vote this evening as opposed to trying to methodically work through a process that was frankly abandoned responsibility by her office months ago. Your attempts to try to mediate these different viewpoints brought forward is apparently deemed arbitrary and capricious,” said Terry Kremer, Director of Human Resources, Teal, Becker & Chiaramonte, CPAs.

That is the exact concern for business owners of the Pine West Plaza. “In its short and troubled history here, has done very little to show that this competently managed or truly committed to improving the community surroundings. Any small amount of respect that I had, or anyone involved in this enterprise is now gone,” said Kremer.

The local Sylvan Learning Center says they will likely have to move the learning center due to the safety concerns for students. “What the clinic does is really good work and its important work. It’s just not the right place for it. As a small business owner who caters to families, I will not be able to stay there if they are there,” said Executive Director, Cathlene Schwartzbeck. 

Others say they now need security they never needed before. “We have already taken measures with our associates to do things like locking down our building, placing more cameras and other security measures that we feel that we’re going to have to take because we don’t know what to expect,” said Joseph Wiley, CEO, NextStep Federal Credit Union.

Attorney Stefanie DiLallo Bitter says the crime at the Central Avenue location is of real concern. “150 police calls were made last year. But there’s nothing from the Albany City Police Department to identify how these neighbors are going to be protected,” said DiLallo Bitter.

NEWS10 has reached out to the police department to confirm those numbers and they tells us they are working on a report for us.

The mayor says the move is needed because the methadone center never should have been located on Central Avenue, in the first place. “This is something we’ve been working on for years and years. It never should have been located where it was, never should have been allowed to grow to the capacity it grew to at that location.” She says the public sidewalk makes all the difference. “We cannot prevent people from being on a public sidewalk. They have a right to be there. That’s why these clinics are always much more successful when they are in a location with their own parking lots. Where if somebody is trespassing, the police can come and remove that individual,” said Sheehan.

The one thing all could agree on was getting care to those that need it when fighting opioid use. 

“I’ll definitely go there. I got to go,” expressed José.

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