State Drops Plans To Demolish or Sell Allentown State Hospital, at Least for Now

Nat Hyman

Pennsylvania's Department of General Services has dropped plans to demolish Allentown State or sell it anytime soon. That's according to court documents filed yesterday in Allentown businessman Nat Hyman's lawsuit against the state.

In what is known as a "Stipulation," the Department of General Services represents "they are not moving forward at the present time with a sale of Allentown State Hospital or demolition of the buildings located at the Allentown State Hospital." The state has also agreed to give Hyman at least 30 days advance notice before sale to a third party or any contract for demolition. It has even agreed to advise Hyman if it even seeks proposals for demolition.

In exchange for these concessions, Hyman has agreed to drop his request for a preliminary injunction, at least for now. He can renew it if the state decides to rip these buildings down.

The parties have finally agreed to put the litigation on hold.

With this lawsuit, private citizen Hyman has succeeded where public officials have been a disappointing failure. These officials include Allentown City Council, who had an opportunity to condemn the proposed demolition through a resolution prepared by Ed Zucal. They let it go. They include State Representative Mike Schlossberg, who personally attacked Hyman instead of addressing his concerns about demolition. They also include State Senator Pat Browne, who took forever and a day before finally responding to his own constituent.

These public officials wanted to spend $15 million to tear down the buildings at the hospital and then sell to a wheeler-dealer from Doylestown named David Ali for $2.57 million. In addition to being someone who has no clue about the Lehigh Valley, Ali is a tax deadbeat who has racked up eight judgments in Bucks County, including tax liens to the state and IRS. But the same people who brought you ghost voting and Fed Ed were perfectly wiling to give Ali three years to arrange financing.

At best, this is incompetence. At worst, it is corruption. This deal had Jenn Mann's fingerprints all over it. She's a State Representative who became a lobbyist and realtor. She has been using her public connections to swing deals like this. That's why Allentown School Director Charlie Thiel wanted his fellow Directors to buy some of the land there for a school. Instead of representing the public good, these politicos serve the private agendas of others.

Of course, Hyman wants to buy this property himself. He knows that filing this suit pretty much ruined that possibility. But his suit has served the greater good by exposing several problems: 1) Should a government ever sell a property to a third party without first seeking proposals? 2) Should there be more restrictions on former public officials who attempt to enrich themselves at the expense of the taxpayer? 3) Will state legislators like Schlossberg and Browne ever realize that they were elected by the people and not business interests?

Hyman is represented by Attorney Suzanne Ilene Schiller of the Bala Cynwyd law firm of MANKO, GOLD, KATCHER and FOX, LLP. Yhe Department of General Services is represented by Attorneys Harry Robert Walter and David Lee Narkiewicz

The stipulation is below.

Pa Drops Plans to Demo Allentown State Hospital by BernieOHare on Scribd