The fate of two proposed sober living houses still hangs in the balance after Kingfisher city commissioners voted unanimously to table the issue following a lengthy discussion at their regular monthly meeting Monday night.

Frontline Ministries is requesting that two homes near the Erwin Avenue church be rezoned and permitted to operate as Journey Center Sober Living Homes to house up to 10 men and 10 women in 12-month residential drug and alcohol recovery programs.

The requests were already the subject of a nearly two-hour discussion at the Planning and Zoning Board meeting last month, when the board voted 4-3 to recommend rezoning the properties from R-1 to R-3 and then voted 4-3 against recommending a conditional use permit to allow the centers to operate.

(No city zoning classification includes sober living centers among its allowed uses, but the multi-family residential designation of R-3 would allow operation of such facilities if a conditional use permit also is granted.)

The Church’s Plan

Ron Porter, Frontlines associate pastor charged with overseeing the church’s 10-year-old addiction recovery ministry which currently operates as a faith-based, 12-step program, spoke on behalf of the proposed centers.

“As a pastor in Kingfisher, I’m very aware of funerals conducted for children and adults who were not able to control their addictions and frankly, I’m tired of it,” he said. “People need the opportunity for recovery and the programs just aren’t available.”

Porter said he was the son of an abusive, alcoholic father from whom he was estranged for most of his adult life.

“I didn’t deserve that life as a child and neither do the children in this community who are living that life right now because their parents can’t get help,” he said.

Based on the successful Teen Challenge model, a program Porter has worked in, the two sober living houses, would serve only as secure, lockdown sleeping facilities.

During the daytime (from 5 a.m. wake-up to 9 p.m. lights out) residents of the houses will be engaged in counseling, Christian mentoring, bible study, work projects, life skills classes and more in other buildings on the church’s campus, all under the supervision of staff members.

“We want to create a controlled environment separating them from the people and circumstances that fueled their addiction,” he said. “We provide a place for them to confront their destructive thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors and gain positive skills for life and freedom from addiction.

“We’ll emphasize Christian values in everything we do.”

Porter said other residential programs with the same combination of longterm duration and faith-based curriculum have demonstrated a record of success – 68 percent of those who complete the program never return to drugs or alcohol.

Both of the houses, one located immediately adjacent to the church and the other across the street to the south, are already owned by the church and utilized for other purposes.

Participation in the program is voluntary and applicants will undergo an extensive screening process, including background checks, Porter said. Violent or sexual offenders would not be eligible.

Drug tests would be administered routinely and participants who qualify for weekend family passes in the latter stages of the 12-month program also will be searched upon their return to the facility to ensure they aren’t bringing drugs back with them, he said.

Neighbors’ Concerns

Robert Wehrenberg, 602 S. Seventh St., read a letter he had also presented at the P&Z meeting in opposition to the church’s plans.

“I agree that the requested services are worthy and needed but I don’t agree that they should be located in the center of a quiet, fully-populated neighborhood,” he said.

“It only takes one unsuccessful person to become a danger to the area and community. Would you recommend this change right next door or directly across the street from your homes?”

However, Sharon Yoder, owner of another neighboring property at 516 S. Main St., had a different opinion.

“I would not have a son alive today if they did not have a program very similar to this in Chickasha that is in a very populated area and functions very well,” she said. “We all know someone who belongs in a program like this.

“When you say you’re concerned about children at nearby schools, what you’re not thinking about are the lives that many children at school are going home to.”

Yoder urged commissioners to either approve the zoning and permit requests or table the matter and visit similar programs at Chickasha and elsewhere before forming an opinion.

Later in the meeting, Porter said he also lived in the neighborhood and noted, “if you know your neighbors well enough, you’ll know that there are families there already dealing with a drug issue.”

Success Stories

Following Yoder to the podium were a succession of local residents, most of whom were graduates of My Brother’s Keeper, a similar faith-based residential program in Oklahoma City, who urged commissioners to give Frontline the greenlight.

“I’ve been to prison over drugs and prison didn’t help me,” Leo Padilla said. “I did almost six years in prison and one year later I was back in the same lifestyle, right here in Kingfisher.

“I was the first graduate of My Brother’s Keeper and that place changed my way of thinking,” he said. “I still had a pending case in Kingfisher and I had been considering going on the run but after I finished the program, I came back and faced it with peace.

“I did so well, my prison time was shortened, I became a trusty and now I’m back in the community, drug-free, being a father to my kids.”

Another local resident who identified himself only as Scott and said he’d been abusing drugs and alcohol most of his adult life told commissioners that addicts do endanger children, but not the way that neighbors are concerned about.

“The way addiction hurts kids is the neglect we give our kids as parents,” he said. “From what I’ve been and what I’ve seen, drugs are rampant, even in this town.”

He noted that My Brother’s Keeper, the program he completed, is “right in the middle of a residential area.”

“This place that Pastor Debbie (Burpo) and Pastor Ron are going to open will do nothing but help the city of Kingfisher immensely.

“When you take us out of our environment and start putting the word of God inside us, a change starts happening. We’re not looking for the next high.

“I came back to Kingfisher with a whole heart. I teach first through third grade class at my church. I have a 10-year-old son. I can honestly say that I’m a productive member of society.”

“Without a program like this, my mom wouldn’t have a son today and my children wouldn’t have a father,” Gus Tate, another graduate of the Oklahoma City program told the commission. “I had made a plan. I wanted to kill myself, but God intervened.

“For a lot of years of my life, I did a lot of destruction in this community, but when I went to My Brother’s Keeper, it changed my life.

“You’ve been asked to think about whether you’d want this if it was going next door to your house. I’d also like you to consider, what if it was your son or your daughter who had the addiction. Or yourself.”

Bill Williams’ statement at the podium was just two sentences long: “Two weeks ago, I buried one of my best friends over drugs and alcohol. How many more people have to die before we help them?”

Dawn Cornele also spoke about Jesus’ example to welcome those in need.

“Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus say, ‘yes, I want to help you with your problem, just not in my town,’” she said. “They’re (Frontline) welcoming those who seek help. That’s what Jesus did.”

Commissioner’s Remarks

Roxanne Alexander was concerned about the impact on the neighborhood where some residents have lived for 30 or 40 years.

“If you’re successful, you’ve already outgrown your facilities,” she said. “Your ideas are wonderful, but your location is not.”

Frontline Pastor Debbie Burpo, who was in the audience, said if Journey Center grows to the point the church has to find larger facilities, the neighborhood won’t be impacted.

“We’re not putting up signs announcing those are sober living centers,” she said. “The look of those homes won’t change. They’ll look like nice residential homes.”

Alexander asked about additional traffic that might be generated, particularly from trucks that would be bringing in food for program participants.

“We bring in over 3,000 pounds of food in trucks for the community right now for distribution to those in need and the elderly,” Porter said. “We just had a truck in today.”

Wehrenberg said the trucks, which park in the lot behind the church to unload, have never been a problem in the neighborhood.

Commissioner Tammy Mueggenborg said she’s had family members who have gone through treatment programs “and yet they go right back into the lifestyle.”

Porter said: “The key is to reintegrate them into the community. This 12-month program teaches them the skills to do that successfully.”

Commissioner Wendell Prim said he has a niece who was sent to prison on drug charges when he couldn’t find a treatment center for her to go to.

“Do I know what the answer is? No, but I do know that a lot of people are going to prison and prisons are getting bigger. For people that need help for drugs, that is no place to go, but there is nowhere else,” he said. “That’s coming from my heart from watching family members having no place to get help.”

Zoning Concerns

If granted, the conditional use permit would be awarded to the church for the specific purpose of operating the sober living homes and would expire if the buildings were sold or used for another purpose.

But the zoning change to R-3 would remain in place even if the property is sold, which concerned some commissioners and audience members.

When asked by Mayor Steve Richards, Burpo said the church would be willing to sign an agreement that zoning on the property would revert to R-1 if the sober living facilities closed or moved to another location.

“You see the need and you see the change,” Richards said after audience members spoke about their personal transformations. “How we look at this is what we see in front of us and how it affects the future. If they (Frontline) are not opposed to setting in writing that the zoning would revert back to R-1, that could be a solution.”

City Attorney Jared Harrison said he needed time to investigate the legality of such an agreement and urged commissioners to review the city’s zoning ordinances and familiarize themselves with what is allowed under R-3.

“It’s not as unrestricted as you may think. A lot of things that can be done under R-3 require a conditional use permit, which means you would have to approve it,” he said. “But some things are automatically allowed, so you need to look at that before you decide.”

Local businessman Brian Walter, attending the meeting for another purpose, also contributed to the discussion.

“As someone that loves this community, I see us as a community at a crossroads. Change is never easy,” he said.

“I think from the community’s standpoint, it’s time to get in this business.”