Coulee Council on Addictions plans to have more discussions about new, somewhat controversial facility

Neighbors have complained about its new location 

They’ve cleared one major hurdle, but supporters of Coulee Council on Addictions know they have more work to do.

Jan Pearson is on the CCA board. Wednesday afternoon on WIZM she said there will be more discussion about the organization’s plan to build on land owned by Mayo Health System next to Lincoln Middle School.

Some of the conversation is just convincing neighbors that the new facility is probably the best realistic option for the space.

“To assume that, just because in a perfect world we’d like to see single-family houses there,” she said, “I don’t think it’s realistic to assume that, even if this didn’t go through, that’s what would happen on that particular property.”

A key city council committee approved a zoning change for the new facility Tuesday night.

But there’s still a week before the full council votes.

“We have to just keep things very positive, spreading our message,” Pearson said. “We’re not going to get into a he said, she said. We’ve grown to appreciate that neighborhood.

“We just need to make sure that the neighbors know that, if this goes through … we intend to work diligently to be the good neighbors that we promise to be.”

Neighbors have complained that CCA has rushed the plans to build the $2-3 million facility and is taking land that could be turned into single-family homes.