Dear Camas Planning Commission: As you contemplate whether restricting drug and alcohol recovery centers is worth exposing Camas to litigation, I have some information that may be helpful in your deliberations: I encourage you to go to the park just south of Dorothy Fox Elementary School and very near the Fairview property that precipitated this issue. Go on a Sunday morning. Look in the garbage cans there. You will see them filled with dozens of discarded beer and wine cans and bottles.
Restricting efforts to create safe places to recover from addiction, but ignoring that there is a drug or alcohol problem literally next door, is not in our collective best interest, especially when a popular gathering place for public consumption is next to an elementary school. I hope you will make an informed decision for the good of our community.
I also hope that nearby property owners who are concerned about a recovery center, a place of healing, will do something productive to mitigate the alcohol abuse currently taking place in their own community park. The one next to the elementary school.
