Rock Camp residents concerned about a new juvenile treatment center near their homes have organized a community meeting Monday.

Saturday, March 18, 2000

Rock Camp residents concerned about a new juvenile treatment center near their homes have organized a community meeting Monday. The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. at the Deering Grange hall.

The Children’s Center of Ohio recently turned an old farmhouse on County Road 53 into a 12-bed residential treatment facility that will house 13- to 17-year-old boys.

Co-directors Michael Burke and Robert Boggs will staff the facility 24 hours a day and run programs for problem children, they said.

However, neighbors are worried about the center’s population of juvenile delinquents or unruly teens, community members said.

"The citizens have questions that they would like to have answered," county commissioner George Patterson said at the board’s Thursday meeting.

Commissioners will attend the Monday meeting, at the request of the community. And the commission sent a registered letter asking that the owners attend, or make someone available to answer questions at the meeting.

Commissioners also have requested information about the youth center from state Department of Human Services officials, which licensed the facility earlier this year.

Boggs said he and Burke have always had an open door policy at the youth center and they plan to attend the meeting.

"We look forward to talking with the community and getting some of these concerns cleared up," Boggs said.

"All we want to do is help children and we hope this meeting will show that," he said.

The directors made assurances that no youth would cause problems in the community, but a listing of the types of juveniles accepted at the facility caused the recent concerns, commissioners said.

A lack of public input during the center’s planning stages also has residents worried, Rock Camp resident Charles Brace said.

"They might do a splendid job," he said. "But they didn’t bring it up with the community to see if it’s all right with them."

Programs operated at the center are highly structured and designed to get the teens back into their home setting, Burke has said.

Programs use positive peer groups, behavior modifications like incentives for doing well, and reality therapy in treatment, he said. Reality therapy is like an encounter group where the facts of a teen’s situation is presented to them so they can see the problem up close, he said.

Boggs said residents or anyone wanting information can call the center at 534-1216.