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Massive Failure of Leadership

The disaster on Boston Post Road, aka the APT Foundation methadone clinic, proceeds apace under the tone-deaf and callous administration of First Selectman Matt Hoey and his sycophants on the Board of Selectmen and Planning and Zoning Commission.

Revealingly, North Haven First Selectman Mike Freda reacted quite differently in 2012 when APT Foundation CEO Lynn Madden proposed buying an abandoned nursing home in a residential area of North Haven. In a Nov. 17, 2023, APT Foundation podcast, Freda said to Madden, “I think it’s going to be a problem—that nursing home—because to put an APT Foundation there, a methadone clinic, I just knew that the residents would really come out against it.” He also said, “I have another location–353 State Street. It’s a sort of commercial/industrial area.” Why didn’t Hoey exercise the same wisdom, judgment, and sympathy for the residents of Guilford when he was faced, in its early stages, with a virtually identical problem?

Hoey should have responded to Madden in the following manner:

“You know, Lynn, I am very supportive of what you are trying to do, but the citizens in my town would never go for a methadone clinic at this location on Post Road. There are too many negative consequences that could flow from your being at that location. The property may be an ‘as of right’ location according to the zoning laws, but, in fairness to Guilford residents, my administration cannot in good conscience help you proceed at this location. Let’s put our heads together and find a suitable industrial location, as they did in both West Haven and North Haven.”

This is a massive failure of leadership and the ethical probity we have every right to expect from public servants. The school year is ending, and Hoey deserves an “F” in both.

Kendall Svengalis

Guilford