A small Pennsylvania town is up in arms over a proposal to turn an abandoned Civil War-era school into a shelter for hundreds of migrant families — with residents and lawmakers vowing to put a stop to the “foreign invasion.”
News of the plan to turn the former Scotland School for Veterans Children building in Franklin County into a migrant shelter surfaced publicly this week after the owners of the sprawling property recently started making inquiries about its potential usage, local officials said.
The Greene Township Board of Supervisors said a representative from USA Up Star, an Indiana-based disaster response company that currently owns the 185-acre property, had reached out to them last month to ask if local zoning laws allowed for the campus to be converted into a shelter.
The company said the location, which was most recently a summer camp, would be used as a “shelter for families seeking refuge” in the US and that they’d be “working closely” with the federal government on the potential project.
The board quickly denied the request, saying current zoning requirements and land use regulations prohibited such a use for the campus.
USA Up Star, however, can still lodge an appeal on the board’s decision, according to local officials.
It wasn’t immediately clear, though, if the company intends to fight the ruling.
Still, the developments sparked immediate outrage with furious locals packing the township’s board meeting on Tuesday to voice their objections over the apparent push to shelter migrants in their community.
“Our concern is that we have no idea who these people are. They’re unvetted,” one local, Sue McPhail, said during the meeting, according to WGAL.
“We don’t know where they came from. We don’t know if they’re involved in gangs. We don’t know if they’re drug traffickers, sex traffickers.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Rob Kauffman and Sen. Doug Mastriano — two Republican state lawmakers who represent the area — vowed to do everything they could to prevent potential plans from gaining traction.
“We are united in our opposition to illegal immigrants being housed by federal government contractors in Franklin County,” the pair said in a joint statement.
“While admittedly none of this is under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth, we became engaged as soon as we heard rumblings of this potential reuse.”
“We join with our neighbors, friends and constituents committed to defending Franklin County from the foreign invasion coming from our southern border,” they continued.
“This facility usage, as envisioned by some outside groups, would irreparably change Greene Township.”
The building, built in 1895, was initially used as an orphanage for the children of Pennsylvania soldiers before being turned into a school for military veterans and active-duty personnel.
The school shuttered due to state budget cuts in 2009 and was sold off.
The Post reached out to USA Up Star about its plans to convert the site.
Franklin County sits on the Mason-Dixon Line — the southern border of Pennsylvania and the northern border of Maryland — halfway between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.