Owners of Blue Island rehab center say town trying to drive them out
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By Dane Placko, FOX 32 News Investigative Reporter - bio | email
BLUE ISLAND, Ill. (FOX 32 News) -
The managers of the rehab center "Affordable Recovery Housing" in Blue Island claim police are trying to run them out of town.
Owners Mary Jo and John Dunleavy said that last week, they were given just five days notice to install fire sprinklers or shut down, so they filed a lawsuit last Thursday.
The next day, around midnight, police showed up with a warrant to arrest a person who might be living there. Then, the Dunleavys said, officers slapped tickets on cars in the parking lot.
"Wow. It was just amazing. That night, they just happened to have three police cars come by," said the couple's attorney, John Mauck.
Mayor Donald Peloquin, who initially supported the rehab center, said the police didn't know about the lawsuit. Peloquin said the problem is that the facility is only supposed to have 14 residents and now has closer to 70.
"If you're going to have 70 men sleeping in a dorm, you need to have the building sprinkered," he said.
The Dunleavys said they won't close down the rehab center, which opened nine months ago inside an old school building leased from the nuns next door.
"All I know is we're going to continue to do what we do, and we're going to keep fighting for what we believe in," Mary Jo Dunleavy said.
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