Taking Crossroads to Lincroft

Last week I posted how Trinity Hall, the all girls "catholic" school, demanded that Middletown remove Crossroads, the Middletown substance abuse service from its long time home at Croydon Hall by June 30th as part of Trinity's $285K lease agreement.

Crossroads at Croydon Hall

At the time of the posting it wasn't clear where within the township Crossroads could relocate to. It had been rumored that the program would be moved to the old Bayshore Branch of the Middletown Library located in Port Monmouth, since it was township property and Middletown was relocating the Recreation Department and a couple of other services that were housed at Croydon Hall there. That idea was scrapped however when it was learned that the building has structural issues and is too small to provided private counseling areas for the individuals and families that use Crossroads services. So, where will Crossroads be relocated to? It seems that the Township has approached the Middletown Board of Education (BOE) and has requested that Crossroads be relocated to the former Lincroft Branch of the Middletown Library. The BOE owns this build and it has sat empty since the library closed back in April when the Middletown Library Board of Trustees decided to close its satellite branches due to budget constraints . The BOE has pledged to lease the building to the township for just $1.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm happy to hear that the township has found a new home for Crossroads and the substance abuse services that it provides, but there are a few issues with moving Crossroads that can affect its moving to Lincroft:


1st off, the building in general, needs a lot of work - work that the libray was gearing up to fix before Tony  Fiore and his cronies put their fingers into the til and swipped the library's surpluses.

2nd, the interior of the building needs to be remodeld to provide private office space for counselors and other social service workers.

3rd, I'm told that the service contracts of the various counselors are very specific due to state and federal grant money need to fund Crossroads. The counselors can not just move to a new location. The new location needs to be approved by the state before a move could be possible and the counselor's service agreements/contracts need to be amended and approved before they can counsel individuals or families. And what happens with those individuals who are currently performing community service at  as a result of drug and alcohol legal offenses, who are currently working at Croydon Hall, helping out at the Senior Center? You just can't change the terms of their court ordered community service

Lincroft Library

4th, the building is located directly across from the Lincroft Elementary School. If Trinity doesn't want Crossroads at Croydon Hall how will Lincroft parents feel when they find out that Crossroads and those it services will be directly across the street from where their kids are going to school? I doubt they'll like it very much.

So the questions I have in my mind are as follows:

Who's paying for the building upgrades? The BOE, the Township or Crossroads? What are the legal ramifications of moving Crossroads from Croydon Hall?  How will the BOE react if/when school parents start bitching about Crossroads moving in across the street? And what's up with the integrity of School Superintendent  Dr. George? He personally assured a number of Library supporters that before anything is done with the Lincroft building the BOE would hold discussions with library advocates and school groups to determine the best possible use of the facility before any decisions about the build were made. Obviously that hasn't happened.

Middletown needs Crossroads and the substance abuse services that the program provides, it should not be moved. It needs to stay where it is. If /when it does move, it has to be done in timely fashion, it can't be rushed to meet Trinity's unrealistic June 30th time frame.