Itasca Haymarket Center rehab facility meeting in Roselle expected to draw thousands

ITASCA, Ill. (WLS) -- So many people are expected to attend a Wednesday night meeting about a plan to open an addiction treatment facility in Itasca that the meeting had to be moved to nearby Roselle.

The proposed Haymarket Center would convert a Holiday Inn hotel over the I-290 expressway into a 240-bed drug and alcohol treatment center, but the company faces an uphill battle as Itasca residents say: not in my backyard.

RELATED: Itasca residents protest plan to turn hotel into drug rehab facility

In September hundreds of residents took to the streets of the village to protest the proposal. A scheduled public meeting to discuss the matter was postponed after so many people showed up there were simply not enough seats to accommodate them all. The meeting was rescheduled to October 16 at Roselle's Lake Park High School/

"The town is not large enough to support this facility," said James Diestel, Concerned Citizens of Itasca. "We're the fourth-smallest town in all of DuPage. And this is one of the largest drug treatment centers."

Opposition to the center has primarily focused around two issues: a significant loss of property tax revenue for the village and a perceived strain on emergency services in a single-ambulance municipality that relies on other suburbs for resource-sharing.

Haymarket hopes to dispel those fears at the meeting by promising to obtain state grants to cover the lost income and use a private ambulance for the vast majority of their needs.

"If a person's condition is so severe that timing is everything, then we might [use the village ambulance]. Yes," said Dan Lustig, Haymarket Center. "But in our analysis we're talking maybe 40 calls a year that we would be using the village."

There is a great need for a drug and alcohol treatment center in DuPage County. According to Haymarket, in 2018 over 54,000 people there did not receive the treatment services they required. The stigma associated with addiction is partly to blame.

Itasca Mayor Jeff Pruyn agreed with that, but is not yet taking a position on whether or not the center should be built htere.

"The state can't guarantee us this money in perpetuity, so for us to make a decision based on getting a state grant is something we really can't use," Pruyn said. "I have to say neutral. Once all the facts are gathered I can start to decide on which way I want to go."

The issue is so controversial that officials can only hope the 2,250-seat auditorium will be enough to accommodate everyone who wants to attend. If they fill it, that would amount to one quarter of all of the residents of the village.

A vote on whether to allow the center is not expected until early 2020.