Hilltop Express

By Dale Welch
dale@hilltopexpress.net
An application for a proposed methadone clinic to be located just outside Monterey town limits has been put on hold for a second time because of a technicality. A pubic hearing that had been scheduled for Sept. 16 at Monterey High School and a hearing in Nashville, that had been set for late October has also been put on hold.
“The public hearing has been delayed,”Melanie Hill, Executive Director, of Health Services and Development Agency, said, “because it is expected that Private Clinic Monterey will withdraw its application. It will be rescheduled if the application is re-filed.”
But, that is not keeping the Putnam and Cumberland County Commissions and other governments from voicing strong opposition to the proposed clinic. A resolution on the agendas of both county commissions says that methadone is “a synthetic opioid which produces many of the same effects in drug addicts as morphine and heroin” and is “increasingly being abused by drug users for recreation an is causing an alarming increase in overdoses and deaths”; and “contrary to popular belief, methadone is a highly addictive drug, which could easily end up on the streets of Putnam County and other ares in the Upper Cumberland”; and “the probability of any positive affects to the health care system, economy or recovering drug users in our area is unlikely”; and “there are already several drug treatment facilities available for the citizens of Putnam County and the Upper Cumberland area which include Bradford Heath, Cumberland Plateau Recovery, Recovery Living, Med Solutions and Volunteer Behavioral Health,”; and “because these facilities are already established and available to the citizens of Putnam County and the Upper Cumberland Area, there is not a need for a methadone clinic.”
Owners of the methadone clinic, called Private Clinic Monterey, plan to build the approximate $970,000 facility at 16168 Crossville Highway. The address is near Walker Farms Rd. The purpose of the clinic is to “assist opioid addicted patients to abstain from the use of illicit drugs through detoxification, treatment and substance abuse/psychiatric counseling services. It is a private for profit outpatient clinic without state, federal or local funding.” It will serve the adult population in Putnam County and surrounding counties.
J. Paul Connell, CEO of the proposed clinic, told the Hilltop Express in a story that ran in the May 15, 2008 edition, that his clinic Private Clinic North, in Rossville, GA., already treats around 228 patients from Putnam and surrounding counties. “We treat everyone from minimum wage earners to doctors and lawyers,” he said. The majority of Private Clinic patients have gotten addicted to prescription drugs such as: Codeine, Dilaudid, Heroin, Hydrocodone, Lortab, Lorcet, Percocet, Percodan, Morphine, Oxycodone, and Oxycotin.
Connell said, “Its a treatment, not a cure. Its much like insulin is a treatment for diabetes; or eyeglasses for bad eyes. They don’t cure, but they help.”
“With the cost of gasoline going up,” Connell said, “its getting to where the cost of transportation for those patients are more than the cost of the treatment. If we can get up there into the Monterey community, it would be easier for our patients.”
Connell said that he has already bought a home in the area for his family.
Property records show that Connell Properties bought the 7.83 acres where the Methadone clinic is planned over a year ago, in May, 2007.
Connell told the Hilltop Express, “I thought about it and prayed about it. Now, its time to build it.” He said that while doctors and nurses will mostly come from the present clinics, others could be hired locally. He said the payroll for the clinic would be from $1.3 to $1.6 million. More information about what the clinic offers can be found on the Internet at:
www.privateclinicnorth.com

Monterey founders Union General John T. Wilder and wife, Dora Lee, along with Major Robert Moscrip and wife, Emma will return to Monterey on Friday, Oct 10, just about a month away to talk about the old days. You’re invited out to the Garden Inn (with ticket in hand) for dinner and to hear their tales.
Dining with the Moscrips and The Wilders is a special dinner theatre helping kick off the big celebration planned for Standing Stone Day, Sat. Oct. 11. The Moscrips will be played by Monterey natives Opless and Kay Walker. The Wilders will be played by John and Judy Wassum, of Rockwood, who live in one of General Wilders home. Gen. Wilder also had a home in Monterey that still stands. Ruth Ann Woolbright and husband, Bill Longmire, live there. Woolbright will be directing the play.
The play will relive defining moments of their lives, which resulted in a railroad, a town on the plateau, coal mines and a lumber industry that would touch the lives of thousands of people across America.
Moscrip was involved in one of the most historical events in the history of railroading in America, as one of the civil engineers responsible for the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Moscrip had friendships with the likes of Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok. Moscrip will reveal in the play how he became a captive of the Cheyenne Indians and how he escaped with the help of his Pawnee Indian Scout. Besides all these adventures, he was the winner of a contest that gave Monterey its name in 1893.
John T. Wilder, known as the "Friendly Carpetbagger" was the leader of the Lightning Brigade of Indiana and hero of the Battle of Chickamauga in Sept. 1863 where he and his men armed with 7-shot Spencers gave Thomas time to form a defense line.
He was one of the 20,000 Union veterans who immigrated to the South by 1866, attracted by the possibilities of places that they had seen during their military campaigns. For a time, he was Mayor of Chattanooga and later, had federal appointments.
In September, 1865, he and his friend, Capt. Hiram S. Chamberlain of Knox County, purchased 728 acres of land in Roane County along the Tennessee River and founded the town of Rockwood with its Roane Iron Company, one of the first post-war industrial establishments in the South. Wilder would continue to hold interests in mining and cement and banking around Knoxville, Tennessee, and built the 300-room Cloudland Hotel on Roane Mt. summit in 1885 as a retreat for hay fever sufferers.
An industrialist, he had numerous business interests in coal, timber, iron, railroads and more. He built a hotel in Monterey, called the Imperial Hotel in the early 1900s and also a residence. The mining town of Wilder was founded by him.
Tickets will be on sale soon for the dinner theatre at a cost of $35 for one person , $60 per couple and $150 per table of six, that includes a dinner of a grilled pork chop, sweet potato casserole , corn souffle, dessert, and coffee or tea. For more information, contact Ruth Ann Woolbright at, 839-2467.