Antis Township has gone forward with amending its sewage facility plan in regard to a proposed methadone Clinic in the township.
However, plans for the clinic are now considered to be in a holding pattern, according to a letter received last week by solicitor Patrick Fanelli of Altoona.
The letter was from Attorney William Haberstroh, who represents the Stark Group Inc., parent company for Allied Medical Services. It has proposed the creation of a nearly five-thousand square foot building along Old Route 220 in Antis Township for a methadone clinic.
Township Manager Jeff Ziegler explained the history behind amending the sewage facilities plan to allow the proposed clinic to use a holding tank for sewer service at the site located across from Splinter’s Bowling Alley.
“We received a letter from DEP directing us to amend our sewage facilities plan,” said Ziegler.
He explained last year, the supervisor’s had denied plans regarding the holding tank for the proposed site.
“The Stark group then sued the township in Blair County Court and in a separate action petitioned the DEP to ask them to direct the board it amend its (sewage facilities) plan.”
According to the Blair County’s prothonatary’s office, Blair County Judge Hiram Carpenter ruled in March, the Stark group had not filed its appeal against the supervisors properly. He ruled the company first should have requested a hearing before the supervisors before going before the court.
Both sides were given 30 days, as is standard procedure, to appeal the decision.
“I don’t know their mind as to why they (The Stark Group) are not proceeding (with the project),” said Ziegler. “I know they should have received the same DEP letter that we did.”
The letter was received by the township in early April and gave Antis officials 60 days to make a decision and implement the amendment to the plan. Ziegler noted the Stark Group should be aware the supervisors would have to make a decision one way or another regarding changing the sewage facilities plan.
“After we got the letter, the board directed solicitor Fanelli to contact the Stark Group to find out what they were going to do,” Ziegler told The Daily Herald.
The supervisors wanted to know if the project was still going to happen, if so, they would amend the plan. However, if the planned clinic was not going to happen then the supervisors wanted to leave the sewage facilities plan the same.
The letter from the Stark Group’s attorney indicated it could not give a definite answer about whether or not the project would go forward at the proposed site. Attorney Haberstroh was not available for comment this morning.
Antis officials decided at their meeting last Thursday to have Fanelli contact DEP to see if the township could be granted an extension to amend the plan.
The township needed clarification from DEP since the April letter was in the form of an order from the state agency requiring Antis to amend its plan in the allotted 60 days.
At the last week’s meeting, supervisors also directed the township engineer to go ahead and make the necessary changes to the facilities plan pending a response from DEP. If the environmental agency granted an extension, local officials would wait before putting it into effect. However, if DEP refused the township’s request, the amended plan would need to go into effect today.
Ziegler indicated he received word this morning the DEP was not satisfied the project was not going to happen and it decided not to grant an extension.
“The amended plan will go into effect today after getting proper signatures on it,” said Ziegler.
The amended plan would also have gone into effect if the township had not received a clarification from DEP by today’s headline.
