Neighbors of the North Michigan Park site in Northeast Washington, already upset with the nonprofit residential treatment facility for troubled young people, say they will oppose any proposed expansion.

"It’s disturbing when you get a gift of $7 million and you don’t know what it’s going to be used for," said Carment Scott, whose home is less than 200 feet from the Boys Town of Washington campus on Sargent Road.

Connie Washington, director of Boys Town’s D.C. operations, said she doesn’t know what the appropriated money would be used for.

"There are no plans at this time to do anything with the property," she said.

According to a fact sheet issued by Boys Town of Washington, "if a plan to further develop the property arises, Boys Town will share this information with the neighborhood groups and appropriate…District agencies."

Confusion over whether a new Boys Town facility will be built and what will happen to the $7.1 million if it isn’t has led some D.C. residents to suspect a behind-the-scenes deal.

"It’s a dirty deal," said Cynthia Reid, president of Concerned Citizens of North Michigan Park, a local civic group.

Congressional sources say Boys Town USA officials from the organization’s Nebraska headquarters, near Omaha, initially took a request for the $7.1 million directly to Sen. Lauch Faircloth, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the Senate’s D.C. appropriations subcommittee. Faircloth’s office said the senator, just defeated for re-election, refuses to comment on the matter. Boys Town officials in Nebraska did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

According to congressional documents accompanying the District’s fiscal 1999 budget, $7.1 million was approved for "an emergency short-term residential shelter and four long-term residential homes to be constructed at Boys Town of Washington located at 4801 Sargent Road in Northeast Washington."

A spokesman for Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said Norton is looking into the Boys Town appropriation and reiterated her frustration over the process that allows Congress to interfere with the District’s budget.

Boys Town USA operates 17 sites nationwide, including the one here. The program earned national recognition through the 1938 film "Boys Town" for which its star, Spencer Tracy, won an Academy Award for portraying Boys Town founder Father Edward Flanagan.

The Boys Town of Washington site currently includes one emergency short-term shelter and one long-term residential facility serving about 675 boys and girls.

Although local Boys Town officials say they have no plans to expand, a 1998 report from the organization’s headquarters contains plans for six new short-term facilities, including one in the District. The report also sets a goal of securing land.

A report from the D.C. appropriations subcommittee says the emergency short-term facility that will be built at the Washington site will provide temporary housing for 300 troubled girls each year, 24-hour crisis counseling and other services for teens and families.

Scott said local residents are united in opposition to the planned expansion, which is also being opposed by the District’s foster care community.

She said when Boys Town first came to Northeast Washington officials told the Ward 5 Advisory Neighbor-hood Commissions and civic association they were making a home environment here and wanted community support. Scott said since that time, Boys Town has neglected them as neighbors.

" It’s not what it was when Father Flanagan was alive," she said.

Copyright 1998, The Common Denominator