Plainfield expected to outsource management of rehab center

PLAINFIELD — The city is poised to outsource management of a substance abuse rehabilitation facility that has been the subject of debate for more than two years, officials have confirmed.

The City Council on Monday will vote on a plan to turn over management of Dudley House on Putnam Avenue to Sunrise House, a Lafayette-based organization that also has facilities in Florham Park and Franklin, Somerset County. According to City Administrator Marc Dashield, the agreement features a five-year lease with a monthly rent of $1,500, or $1,200 to rent the house itself and $300 more to conduct outpatient services in space leased in the City Hall Annex on Watchung Avenue.

"This is the best of all situations,'' Council President Rashid Burney said. "This is what we want, what we've been asking the administration to do, and I'm glad they've finally done it.''

Dashield acknowledged that the process of identifying a new manager was a difficult one. The 15-bed facility, which serves patients from throughout Central Jersey, traditionally has cost the city a little less than $30,000 per year to operate, but that cost skyrocketed to $178,000 for the fiscal year 2009 due to the loss of a county grant. That situation spurred city officials to seek alternative management.

A person who answered the phone at Sunrise House headquarters last week said Dr. Philip Horowitz, the organization's chief executive officer, would have no immediate comment, citing the pending nature of the agreement. But Burney said he feels it's a safe bet the council will be eager to approve the plan.

"It really takes what was a cost to the taxpayers and turns it around into revenue,'' said Burney, who added that he believes Sunrise House will have the power to "service even more people than we could.''

"The question now really is, can we replicate this to other social programs we're running?'' Burney asked.

According to Sunrise House's Web site, the organization was founded in 1983 by a New Jersey businessman who acquired an 87,000 square foot Franciscan monastery for the purpose of treating individuals suffering from substance abuse and dependency. The most recent statistics available on the site indicated that it annually serves more than 2,300 patients.