Approximately 70 Bald Eagle residents and supporters congregated once again at the Bald Eagle Fire Hall Wednesday evening to discuss Pyramid Healthcare Inc. and their Greentree Village facility\u2019s presence within the small community in Snyder Township.
\nGreentree Village is an educational and therapeutic program for young men in the Tyrone Area School District who have had academic or behavioral issues that have prevented them from reaching their potential in the public school system. The Pyramid facility officially opened their doors in Bald Eagle this past Monday, August 26th.
\nAlthough the efforts by the concerned Bald Eagle residents didn\u2019t keep Greentree Village from opening Monday, they met last evening to decide whether or not they will continue to pursue the issue of Pyramid\u2019s placement in the community and how it was done.
\nJohn Snyder, resident of Bald Eagle and spokesperson, stated, \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do tonight is to see where we go from here. It\u2019s a long haul, it\u2019s not something where we\u2019re going to get them out next week or in a couple of months.\u201d He added, \u201cThis could take a long time.\u201d
\nAn occupancy permit was signed by a Snyder Township supervisor, which enabled Pyramid Healthcare to move into the Greentree Village facility and cause complications for further action by the citizens. The Bald Eagle residents have a lawyer, Jim Bryant of State College, who is willing to help the residents if they can provide him something to work with, but no legal action was discussed last evening.
\nSnyder stated, \u201cWe had a real good case, hard and firm. When the occupancy permit was signed, we were sold down the river. But we can\u2019t give up.\u201d
\nResidents in the community aren\u2019t planning on giving up. The community is committed and is in the process of developing a planning committee so they can be more organized. They have named their group \u2018Snyder Township and Vicinity Concerned Citizens.\u2019
\nSnyder stressed, \u201cOur main reason for all of this is that we\u2019re opposed to where this (Greentree Village) is at and how it was brought into us. We\u2019re not opposed to the kids and helping the children, that\u2019s not our reason, but what\u2019s going to be next – a prison or more boys homes?\u201d
\nEd Schenck, another resident of Bald Eagle and spokesperson for the community, said that the community needs to get more involved as a whole. Effort needs to be placed where it needs to be placed.
\n\u201cI feel personally that things need to change,\u201d said Schenck. \u201cWe\u2019re the ones who are going to have to make the change. We\u2019re going to have to have the courage of our condition to do that, we\u2019re going to have to have a backbone to do it. Any change is better than what we got.\u201d He added, \u201cWe need to be instruments of change.\u201d
\nSome of those changes Schenck spoke about were the willingness of some Bald Eagle residents to perhaps run for school board positions and Snyder Township positions to have more of a voice on matters. If not run for positions, then to attend those meetings as a community to speak out and know what is going on within the township and school district.
\nSchenck added, \u201cPyramid\u2019s contract is renewable in one year, next August. There\u2019s a window of opportunity here and we have to stay committed and focused on what we are trying to do.\u201d
\nIf the residents can\u2019t change what has happened with the Greentree Village, they hope to prevent something similar in the future. Charlie Diehl, a chairman of the Northern Blair County Regional Sewer Authority and concerned citizens, spoke of zoning issues within Snyder Township to help prevent an incident such as the one at hand, but Diehl is afraid that the present township supervisors will not support zoning.
\n\u201cSnyder Township will become a dumping zone for places like this (Greentree Village) once the I-99 project is complete through Bald Eagle,\u201d says Diehl. \u201cIf \u2018select zoning\u2019 isn\u2019t addressed at township meetings for the future, it\u2019s going to happen.\u201d
\nThe residents of Bald Eagle and the Snyder Township and Vicinity Concerned Citizens aren\u2019t planning on giving up on Pyramid Healthcare Inc.\u2019s placement in their community or possible placement of any facility of that kind in the future. They have a fund, plan to do fundraisers, and put every effort into making the Bald Eagle community safe as it has always been.
\nSchenck stated, \u201cWe want the best for our kids and our community.\u201d Pyramid Healthcare Inc. has opened many eyes within the small community in Snyder Township. With organization, the residents plan on opening other\u2019s eyes to begin making changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Approximately 70 Bald Eagle residents and supporters congregated once again at the Bald Eagle Fire Hall Wednesday evening to discuss Pyramid Healthcare Inc. and their Greentree Village facility\u2019s presence within the small community in Snyder Township. Greentree Village is an educational and therapeutic program for young men in the Tyrone Area School District who have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}