KatieRose Keenan of the Northeast Times writes about last week’s Frankford Civic meeting. One of the important issues addressed:
During the association’s meeting, the membership also turned to the continuing saga of its fight against the opening of substance-abuse treatment facilities and recovery houses in the community.The civic group has been opposed to the opening of the Wedge Medical Center, a treatment facility at 4243-47 Frankford Ave.At its June meeting, according to the civic organization, Roland Lamb, director of addiction services for the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health/Mental Retardation Services, promised to organize a town-hall meeting so that the community could discuss concerns about a recent spread of these facilities in Frankford.
Civic members are taking steps to push for that meeting. “We addressed Mr. Lamb and requested that we settle on a date for the town-hall meeting we were promised,” aid Brian Wisniewski, vice president of the civic association. “We have been waiting well over six months for a town-hall meeting.”
During that meeting in June, members said, Lamb also outlined the criteria that a treatment facility must meet for approval to operate in a community. One of those provisions, Wisniewski insisted, has not been met. “Mr. Lamb stated that a treatment center had to have letters of support from the community,” Wisniewski said. “There were no letters of support from this board for the Wedge Medical Center to open up.”
“We have also asked Mr. Lamb repeatedly to show us who from the community supported Wedge. So, far we have received no answer.”
A common strategy in government for dealing with problems is to ignore them. Sometimes they go away and you solve the problem that way. But Frankford is not going to go away. We are waiting.
It is time for Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez to step into this issue. She is the chair of the L&I committee. Seems like she is the go to person when it comes to enforcing regulations. We is she waiting for?
In view of the announcement of the shutdown of the Northeast Breeze, the News Gleaner, and the Olney Times today, the headline “We are not going away” takes on new meaning.
Internet newspapers for communities may well be the wave of the future, and you deserve great credit for being a pioneer in this direction.
Nice post. Good work.
I really regret the loss of the Gleaner. There are some things that print does better than this web thing and they had a great history in Frankford. What else is on the horizon for local coverage. The Northeast Times is doing a great job now and hopefully it will continue with folks like us filling the gaps. Sometimes the gaps is where the really interesting things turn up.