Bald Eagle residents and people of Snyder Township have had their eyes opened by the placement of Pyramid Healthcare Inc.’s Greentree Village facility within the rural community of Bald Eagle that rehabilitates troubled area youths.
The people of Bald Eagle have formed a group, ‘Snyder Township and Vicinity Concerned Citizens,’ to help organize their opinions and disagreements as a whole because many citizens in the small Snyder Township community have voices that now want to be heard.
Those concerned citizens have flocked in large numbers to the recent Snyder Township meeting September 3 and to the September 10 Tyrone School Board meeting. The Pyramid Healthcare issue has struck a chord with the people of Snyder Township and they want some sort of resolve granted to them.
Their presence alone shows the troubling concerns and questions the people of Bald Eagle have, and they plan on continuing to overflow the Township and School Board meetings until their concerns are addressed and questions are fully answered.
One concern that has bewildered the involved Bald Eagle residents is the way the Tyrone School Board meetings are conducted.
Bonnie Houser, treasurer and spokeswoman for ‘The Snyder Township and Vicinity Concerned Citizens,’ stated, “We’re not happy with the way the School Board meetings are held or the way the minutes are written for the School Board. There’s no time really to talk or to give answers to any of the questions – they don’t answer you.”
Ed Schenck, another spokesperson for the Snyder Township citizens, likewise is frustrated with the lack of support from the school board and how difficult he found it to be to receive information from the board.
“It’s almost like they (the School Board) don’t want you to know, and hopefully that isn’t the case,” said Schenck. “We don’t get responses from the School Board when we bring up issues. They open up public comment session, you can’t address a board member personally and then you only have five minutes to speak; but they do give you the five minutes.”
Schenck noted that Superintendent Dr. William Miller did address some questions that were appreciated by Schenck. He noted, “I appreciate the passion Dr. Miller and Joann Lang show for helping the kids, but they should give equal consideration for the people paying the bills and how they feel about a facility coming into their neighborhood.
“I’m just one person expressing my views, but I want our folks to express their opinions also,” said Schenck. “That’s what’s great about our country and we’re trying to follow the school’s process and hopefully we’ll get all our answers to our questions at some point.”
Houser and many other Bald Eagle residents are pushing for an ordinance and/or zoning by Snyder Township supervisors to possibly prevent other incidents like Pyramid Healthcare’s placement within the township and Bald Eagle.
According to Houser, Snyder Township is looking into the issue, and the Northern Blair Regional Sewer Authority is still concerned and checking in on the sewage issue at Greentree Village.
“If they (Snyder Township) would pass the ordinance for a 90 day notice for any business to go into the township, that would be a big help,” said Houser. “That would definitely be in our favor if it was an active ordinance right now.”
Houser stated, “It’s all new to us, we’re still pushing for the township to look into zoning also. There’s zoning in other places, so why not in Bald Eagle?” She continued, “We’ll have to have some zoning when the Northern I-99 Corridor gets completed because more businesses will be coming into Bald Eagle, and hopefully some good businesses come here.”
Schenck commented, “Our intent is not to take away the fundamental reasons why people live here and what they want to do with their properties.”
Schenck’s main concern with Greentree Village is safety and security. He stated, “People in Bald Eagle are really nervous; just in the past two weeks there’s been three incidents of kids wandering off the premises by themselves. This is something Pyramid assured us would never happen.”
“There’s not one on one supervision like we were told,” said Schenck. “And this is before the overnight people have come in when the supervision will be less.”
Schenck continued, “There’s a lot of elderly people here and they’re scared to death. We’re not against these kids, but let these people in this community live out their lives peacefully. This isn’t a personal thing against Pyramid, but here we are with a bad situation in our neighborhood – our residential area.”
Schenck, Houser and the rest of The Snyder Township and Vicinity Concerned Citizens are going to keep attending Snyder Township and Tyrone School Board meetings to keep seeking answers to their questions and try to avoid a similar incident in the future.
Houser stated, “We’re not dead, it opened our eyes – we’re as active as we were a month ago, and just as concerned and upset. This isn’t going to happen again.”
