New Castle residents and business owners thought their fight to keep a methadone clinic out of the city was over two years ago.
But after winning an appeal with the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, Freedom Health Care Services could end up placing a methadone clinic right next to a day care center.
"When Mrs. Clinton said it takes a village to raise a child, I'm sure she did not include a methadone clinic," said Leann Shuluga, the director of Little People's Day Care and Preschool.
The clinic would be placed in the old Villanova Inn restaurant building on East Washington Street. That site is just a few doors down from Little People's Day Care and Preschool that takes care of about 40 kids.
The director of the day care said a bus drops off kids for the facility in front of the Villanova and is worried about the safety of children in such close proximity to drug patients. So are the children's parents.
"I don't know any mother that would allow their child to be exposed to that danger, including myself," said Shuluga.
"I just can't see why we have to have a methadone clinic in a neighborhood like that where there's children involved and businesses involved when there are so many empty places in this city that they could put that thing if they needed it that bad," said concerned business owner Frank Marcotullio.
"I'm asking the city and the community to back us up on this. It might be beneficial for a lot of people, but morally you need to think of the children in a time like this," said Courtney Paynee, with the Little People's Day Care and Preschool.
The New Castle Zoning Board of appeals or private citizens must file a request for the court to consider an appeal on this latest decision by Dec. 17.
