Comments By OPWDD's Burke About Developmental Centers Misunderstood

TUPPER LAKE, N.Y. - Sunmount DDSO is not scheduled for closure.
"It's totally false," village Mayor Mickey Desmarais said Wednesday. "They're not going to close Sunmount down."
Courtney Burke, head of the state Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, caused a wave of panic in this town of 6,000 people when she appeared on the WCNY radio show "Capitol Pressroom" Monday.
Host Susan Arbetter asked if the OPWDD plans to close Sunmount, and Burke answered her, "We are seeking to close all of our developmental centers by the end of 2014."
But Burke's spokesman Travis Proulx said Wednesday that the whole thing is a misunderstanding. He said there is a plan to close down all of the state's developmental centers, but that Sunmount is a "developmental disabilities services office," not a developmental center, so her answer didn't apply to it.