ALBION, N.Y. — A proposed drug rehab facility in Albion has divided some in the community.

At the site of a former senior home, the Rochester nonprofit Gates to Recovery wants to bring a mental health-focused drug transition center to the area.

“[The center would] strip you down and build you up,” said the president of Gates to Recovery, Randy Cimino. “[It would] teach you how to live with yourself and love yourself again." 

Cimino says this wouldn't be for detox or traditional drug rehabilitation. A former drug addict himself, he says he wants to use the 35-room facility to bring needed healing to upstate New York.

“When I got involved with mental health, things changed [for me],” Cimino said. “And for many years I've been clean and sober because of it. So I'm looking to pass that on to others." 

However, many residents of Albion aren't sold on the plan.

“That's the facility right there. That's the view from my living room window." Diana Reed said, looking outside her home after moving back to Albion from Florida after hearing her childhood home was up for sale.

“[I’ve been] making it my home again,” Reed said. “I'm still pinching myself because I never thought I'd be able to do this." 

She’s been busy with renovations and is worried a drug rehab facility next door would be just another headache.

“The traffic alone [worries me],” Reed said. “Look at all the houses around here. Do you see any commercial facilities? No."

She’s not against drug rehab, but would just like Gates to Recovery to choose a more rural part of the town.

“I think we need drug treatment facilities, but this is a horrible location for it," Reed said.

She was at a town meeting to discuss the issue, along with two others who are coworkers at a prison in Albion.

Tiffany Schroeder and her husband are both former addicts.

“We've overcome it, and are living a really good life today,” Schroeder said. “We want that for everyone." 

While Chris Crane’s son Joseph is currently at his fourth stint of rehab in Buffalo.

“Most people, when they go to bed at night, they turn their ringer off on their phone,” Crane said. “I don't. I turn my ringer up, because you never know when you're going to get the call."

Some town officials are worried about what the facility could mean for taxes and their struggling community.

“It will be a 501-C3, which means that will be off the tax rolls, and we'll get no revenue from that," Albion Deputy Mayor Joyce Riley said.

But both Chris and Tiffany are ardent supporters.

"They matter in their families, and they matter to this community,” Schroeder said. “There's no dollar amount on a person's life." 

Cimino says building somewhere else would take too much money and too much time.

“Every day we wait, another person dies," Cimino said.

He hopes to be up and running before the holidays, but says his nonprofit is going to work hard to gain everyone’s trust before then.

“I'm hoping everyone comes together, gives us a chance, listens to us and watches what we do," Cimino said. "And we can all come together and do the one thing that should've been done a long time ago [and] start saving our brothers and sisters."