Residents In Fight With City Over Drug Rehab Location
update 6:40 p.m. - The Saginaw city council denied the special use permit for drug treatment center.
SAGINAW (CBS 11 NEWS) - A battle has been brewing for months in the Tarrant County city of Saginaw. Residents and some businesses are fighting the city over a proposed drug rehabilitation facility moving to the area.
MedMark Services wants to open a facility at a strip center in the 500 block of South Saginaw Boulevard.
"I don't like the location," Valerie Tankersley stated flatly. Tankersley, who owns Valerie's Kid Kare, went on saying, "I don't think it's a good location for any medical facility to be so close."
Tankersley took out a measuring tape Tuesday and wanted to point out just how close the center would be to her daycare. She measured it at 502 feet from the nursery.
Tankersley has been at the same location for 25 years. "I have nothing against anybody that is trying to fight an addiction or anything like that. I think they deserve all the help that they get," Tankersley explained but added, "I just don't think that this location is suited for their needs."
According to MedMark's website the center treats people with addictions to pain medicine and narcotics.
Stephen Watson is also against the facility coming to Saginaw. He lives a mile away from the proposed location and also owns the nearby business Bravo Music.
Watson said a lot of students come to him for music lessons and he worries about his own family. "I'm really concerned about the crime and people loitering."
The business owner and father of a 7-month-old baby boy said, "It scares me for my son, because he goes to daycare and it's so close and it wouldn't take anything for someone to come over here and something to happen."
Watson and others are hoping the city will consider a new location -- possibly in an industrial area.
CBS 11 News tried to talk to someone with the city about the resident's concerns but no one is commenting.
MedMark is also not commenting, however according to city documents filed the company wants to be a good neighbor and will make sure patients aren't congregating outside and bothering others.
Update 7:00 pm
The City Council has denied the special use permit for drug treatment center.
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