‘Organizational Juggernaut’ : New York Opponent Says Phoenix House Is ‘Tough’

A salesman who helped lead an unsuccessful fight against Phoenix House in his New York community warned Lake View Terrace residents Tuesday that it will be difficult to stop the firm’s Nancy Reagan Center for drug-abuse treatment.

Richard Tramonti said the Phoenix House drug center, which opened in 1981 near his house in Shrub Oak, N.Y., has caused few problems. But he said he objected to the “pure arrogance” of the company in not checking with the community before deciding to start a drug treatment center.

“They are an organizational juggernaut,” Tramonti said at a news conference called by the Lake View Terrace Home Owners Assn. “They’re tough.”

210-Bed Center

Phoenix House has proposed putting the 210-bed center, where the former First Lady will have an office, in the vacant Lake View Medical Center.

“Visiting this site, I think we’re lucky in Shrub Oak,” said Tramonti, who was in Los Angeles visiting sick relatives. “At least we have space between us and them.”

In Shrub Oak, a community of 3,500 people north of New York City, the 250-student Phoenix Academy is housed in a former Jesuit seminary. The buildings are about 500 yards from the nearest houses, while the Lake View Medical Center buildings are within about 40 yards of houses.

Phoenix House representatives could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Mitchell S. Rosenthal, company founder and president, has said hard feelings in Shrub Oak and other communities are based on misconceptions about the firm’s centers.

“We do not feel good about causing worry about people’s homes and their children,” he said after a public hearing in Lake View Terrace in January. “But most of the fears and concerns are imaginary.”

Complimentary letters from the Yorktown Police Department, which patrols Shrub Oak, and town Supervisor Nancy Elliot were submitted to the city of Los Angeles with Phoenix House’s application for a permit to operate the Lake View Terrace center. Elliot said she opposed the center at first but later changed her mind after problems did not materialize.

But Lewis Snow, vice president of the homeowner group, said Tramonti’s comments confirm that Phoenix House would not be a good neighbor.

“It does show we’re not running around like Chicken Little,” Snow said.

Loophole in Law

Tramonti helped lead Shrub Oak residents who fought Phoenix House. But when the town would not grant Phoenix House a permit to open its center, the company found a loophole in state law that allowed the center to open as a branch of New York City’s schools.

Tramonti offered few facts Tuesday to support his claims that Phoenix House has broken promises to the community.

The center has not admitted Shrub Oak drug users despite promises to clean up the community’s drug problems, he said.

Phoenix House representatives have said they were forced to revise plans to treat Shrub Oak youths because they could not get the permit from the town. Because the Phoenix Academy is licensed as a New York City school, its clients must be former or current students of that district, company officials have said.

Tramonti said supervision at the center has sometimes been lax. He said he has seen adolescents wandering on country roads near his house two or three times in the eight years since the center opened. He said some of them claimed to be Phoenix House clients and appeared to be high on drugs. He said he never reported the incidents to authorities.