Group Home Faces Opponents

OLD SAYBROOK - An initiative to convert a residence on Anchorage Lane into a therapeutic group home for five boys between the ages of 14 and 21 has met opposition among residents and politicians.

Rainbow Housing Corporation, a subsidiary of Middletown-based Gilead Community Services, purchased the .42-acre property at 7 Anchorage Road for $435,000 from Anne L. Niles of New Bern, N.C., on Feb. 15.

The facility is part of a 2005 concept started by the Department of Children and Families, DCF, to place teenagers in home-like settings as opposed to sending them to institutional or out-of-state facilities.

"It's premised on the idea that children belong in the most home-like community based setting as possible," said Gary Klebatt, director of communications at DCF.

DCF contracts services out to mental health agencies like Gilead in order to place children in appropriate facilities based on their needs.

While there are 39 small group homes now, Klebatt said, the department's goal is to open 50, all distributed throughout the state.

The Anchorage Lane home is located in the eastern part of town near the end of a narrow cul-de-sac with nine houses and a boat yard.

Its property abuts the Connecticut River and is within walking distance to a marina, hotel, restaurant with bar, Route 9, and the entrance of the pedestrian walkway along the Baldwin Bridge on Interstate 95.

Both Old Saybrook Selectman Bill Peace and 23rd District State Representative Marilyn Giuliano believe it is an inappropriate place for a group home.

Peace is a former Department of Transportation engineer while Giuliano is a school psychologist.

"In this case you would want breathing room for the facility," Peace said, adding that he believes a more appropriate site would have at least one acre.

Another issue, Giuliano said, is that "houses are nestled closely together on relatively small lots with inconvenient on-street parking."

The facility is expected to add parking and traffic issues to this small community.