Salisbury Commissioners To Consider Proposed Detox Facility

The Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners will consider tonight Lehigh County's proposal to build a detoxification center for recovering addicts next to the county's prison for work-release inmates at 1600 Riverside Drive.

The 31-bed residential would admit clients from Lehigh and Northampton counties. The county had wanted to admit clients from a wider region, including other states.

The 15,510 square-foot building that would be built next to the county’s Community Corrections Center, a work-release center for low-risk offenders that is undergoing a $6.1 million renovation and expansion.

The detox facility would add up to 18 employees per shift to the site, and an additional 43 parking spaces to be built on 6.95 acres on the north side of Riverside Drive.

The Planning Commission approved the plan by a vote of 4 to 1 at its February 8 meeting. Chairman Charles Beck was concerned about the poor condition of Riverside Road, which is rutted with potholes, and no apparent. Commissioner  Glenn Miller was concerned there might be contaminated soil on the site, a former industrial area that was used to sandblast paint off railroad cars in the 1970s. In 1998, about 4,000 tons of sandblast was removed and monitoring wells were established.

The commissioners will hold a conditional use hearing and vote on preliminary and final land development plans on the detox proposal at 7 p.m. tonight  in the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.