Neighbors, sheriff concerned about Mayfield treatment center

MAYFIELD, Ky. (KFVS) - Graves County Sheriff Jon Hayden believes the recent theft of a semi-truck in the community surrounding Recovery Works is just the tip of the iceberg.

Sheriff Haden said he has received hundreds of complaints associated with the facility.

Recovery Works, a detox addiction treatment center, is surrounded by miles of homes in rural Mayfield. Patients arrive at the facility for addictions, but neighbors say when they leave, they have become the community’s problems because the center allows them to walk out with no transportation or phones.

“I just worry somebody’s gonna get hurt,” Daniela Choate said. “Somebody’s gonna get hurt.”

Choate lives on the same road as Recovery Works.

She’s lost count of the number of patients who have left the facility and ended up at her house looking for help.

Her husband has driven multiple people into town to the nearest gas station so they can use a phone there.

“Well we’ve mainly had them coming up wanting to use the phone, their phones are dead when they leave there because they take their phones, so they have no way to call anybody,” Choate said.

The sheriff’s office gets multiple calls a week.

“They’re knocking on people’s doors in the middle of the night, scaring people, we’ve had numerous thefts, burglaries,” Sheriff Hayden said. “We had a situation last Thanksgiving where someone who left there broke into a residence.”

“I tell him to get up, get some shoes on, get some clothes on because we’ve got a problem outside,” Choate said. Her home was the one that was broken into that day. “And I said I think he’s gonna try to come in the house.”

She said the man wasn’t violent towards them, but acted aggressively.

“He takes a little table and busts through our front door and comes right through the hall,” Choate said.

Hayden said he has spoken to the facility’s management multiple times about the issues.

“We’re assured almost each and every time that it’s gonna get fixed and it never gets fixed,” Hayden said.

With no help from the center, the Graves County Sheriff’s Office plans to make a formal complaint with Recovery Works’ corporate office.

“We’re not only concerned for the safety of that neighborhood, we’re concerned for these patients,” he said.

Sheriff Hayden said there is nothing he wants more than to see these individuals get the help they need, but the center needs to provide the basics--transportation and a way to contact someone to pick them up.

Choate said she and other neighbors are very concerned.

“What worries me is that one day this is gonna happen and it’s gonna be someone’s life on the line, either theirs or ours,” Choate said.

Recovery Works treatment center could not be reached for comment.

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