MAHONING TOWNSHIP, PA. Developer opposes treatment facility

The businessman said he is concerned that the center's residents could escape.
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
HILLSVILLE, Pa. -- Supervisors have learned of plans to put a residential facility for troubled teen-agers on U.S. Route 224 in Poland Township, right across the state line from Mahoning Township.
John Kotchmar, owner of the Dairy 224 store at the state line, informed supervisors that the Poland Township Board of Zoning Appeals is considering a request for a conditional-use permit for the former ESSROC building at 6969 Center Road to be used for a residential adolescent counseling and treatment center.
A public hearing is set for 7 p.m. March 22 at Poland Township Government Center, 3339 Dobbins Road.
Kotchmar said that he plans a residential development across the road from the property and that he is concerned about safety if adolescents escape from the proposed facility. He pointed out that escaped resident who cross the state line into Mahoning Township would find themselves in a municipality with protection from only Pennsylvania State Police, whose nearest barracks is 15 miles away.
Kotchmar said he is circulating petitions against the permit in both Poland and Mahoning townships.
What's planned: The request was filed by Adolescent Counseling & amp; Treatment Inc. of Akron, represented by Atty. Kelly Morrisson of Youngstown, for a five-acre parcel that is part of a larger 55-acre tract owned by EMAI Corp. It is on the south side of Center Road (U.S. Route 224), just west of the state line.
Papers filed with the request describe ACT as a private nonprofit corporation providing residential treatment to "neglected, abused and/or delinquent adolescents between the ages of 13 and 21."
ACT, according to the papers, has four adolescent residential treatment centers at two separate locations in Akron and would like to relocate two of its programs to Poland.
These include its male residential step-down and male intensive services units. The combined maximum licensed capacity of these two units is 30 clients, although the actual residential capacity would depend on licensing authority received from the state of Ohio.
Residents of the facility are monitored constantly and would not be allowed to leave the premises. ACT says it will "generally not" accept people who have an IQ below 60, exhibit "current psychotic diagnosis or acting out behavior," pose a clear and distinct danger to staff and others, require drug detoxification, possess severe organic mental impairment, do not meet the age requirement or are severely handicapped.
Projections are for 30 to 50 jobs to be created for local residents.
The conditional-use permit is required because the land is in an industrial zoning district and the planned facility would be residential in nature.