Two state lawmakers are seeking public input on the future of the former White Haven Center in Foster Township.
Sen. Dave Argall, R-Schuylkill, and Rep. Jamie Walsh, R-Luzerne, will host a community meeting Thursday at St. Patrick's Church in White Haven.
Formerly a residence for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, White Haven closed in February 2023. But the 192-acre site continues to be maintained by the state Department of General Services (DGS).
“We simply cannot allow the White Haven Center to continue to sit vacant, year after year after year, wasting our valuable taxpayer dollars,” Argall said Tuesday.
White Haven was one of the last two state-run facilities of its kind. The other, The Polk Center in Venango County, also closed in 2023. Argall has said state statistics show it costs $8.9 million a year to maintain White Haven, $15.3 million to maintain the Polk Center, and $3.9 million to maintain the former Hamburg center in Berks County, which closed in 2018.
Argall advocates selling all three to get them back on the tax rolls. He has particularly focused on White Haven, which is in his district.
“We organized this meeting to hear ideas about how to reuse the property, and no one knows what this community needs better than the people who live here, work here, and raise their families here,” Argall said.
Meeting attendees "will be asked to share their thoughts on issues they would like to see addressed in the White Haven area and how the White Haven Center could be redeveloped to support the needs of the community," a news release from Argall's office said.
Representatives from the state General Services and Human Services departments, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, the White Haven Blueprint Community Team and Luzerne County will participate.
The meeting is set for 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the church, 411 Allegheny St., White Haven.
