NORWICH – Valley Ridge Center For Intensive Treatment has yet another new director, but only temporarily.
A spokeswoman for the New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities said the maximum security institution’s former director, Carl Letson, was no longer on the job. OPWDD spokesperson Nicole Weinstein did not elaborate on his departure.
Valley Ridge CIT, home to approximately 60 developmentally disabled men who have committed crimes against people and property, has changed directors and day-to-day operations managers three times since being absorbed by Broome Developmental Disabilities Services Organization of Binghamton just two years ago. The intitial merger resulted in several staff reductions and uncertainty about the future of a local oversight group.
Former director of the Central New York DDSO John Gleason has stepped in at the Upper Ravine Road facility in Norwich “due to a change in leadership” and only “until a new director can be hired,” said Weinstein.
Valley Ridge Board of Visitors President Steve Bernardi said he had heard about the most recent management change last week during a routine telephone call to the CIT. He said he did not know why.
The BOV is charged with monitoring developments via regularly scheduled meetings. The meetings had previously taken place in Norwich about three or four times a year, but are now being conducted at the Broome Developmental Center in Broome County.
Bernardi said there is always a chain of command in any state agency, and the public should “absolutely not” be concerned about safety as a result of the leadership changes. Weinstein said OPWDD’s No. 1 priority is “the health and safety of people with developmental disabilities.”
The longest-lasting director from Chenango County on staff was Fred Barnes of Preston, who had been an employee at the facility since it opened in 2005. Barnes was operations director and principal psychologist until being transferred unexpectedly late last year. He is now principal psychologist at the Broome DDSO Local Intensive Treatment facility in Binghamton.
Broome DDSO Deputy Director AnneMarie Peterson assumed Barnes’ day-to-day operations at Valley Ridge and is presumably still at the facility, though a phone call to her office was not returned.
Valley Ridge’s treatment program includes clinical services ranging from basic living skills to intensive anger therapy and relapse prevention services. Through the years, the state oversight agency has at times issued citations and even relocated staff following allegations of consumer on staff and staff on consumer abuse. The Chenango County BOV learned last fall that there were 234 such reported allegations at the facility from Dec. 2009 to Sept. 2010.
There have been up to 15 registered high level sex offenders residing there at any one time.
Local representation on the BOV board has progressively disappeared, with only three of seven positions currently filled. The media was not invited to attend the most recent meeting in Broome County.
The town of Norwich facility employs 225.