New Vitae Psychiatric Treatment Center to close

as reported in The Morning Callo newspaper of New Jersey

The 5-year-old legal battle between Upper Saucon Township and the New Vitae psychiatric treatment center at Mount Trexler Manor will end within the next two to four weeks, the township solicitor told residents Tuesday. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has rejected arguments from owner Adam Devlin's attorneys to allow the New Vitae psychiatric treatment to continue serving approximately 90 patients, effectively ending the dispute.

''New Vitae and the outpatient treatment will have to cease and desist,'' solicitor Jeffrey Dimmich said at Tuesday's supervisors meeting. The township began hearings in 1999 to force Devlin and Mount Trexler to halt treatment programs at the former nursing home, arguing they violated a zoning permit that only allowed a residential facility. Lehigh County Judge Lawrence J. Brenner upheld the township's subsequent order to stop the programs and Brenner was later upheld by a Commonwealth Court. Mount Trexler and Devlin asked the state's top court to stay that ruling and approve an appeal of the order. Both requests were denied in a brief ruling issued June 17. ''That ends it as far as the zoning matter is concerned,'' Dimmich said.

However, the patients probably will be allowed to stay at Mount Trexler. Attorneys for Devlin and the patients offered a settlement in April that could include tighter security to eliminate complaints from nearby home owners who say patients regularly intruded onto their properties and houses. Patients entered private homes and allegedly trespassed on the property of the nearby St. Michael's Elementary School, alarming students, according to testimony in the 1999 zoning hearings.

George Bloeser, who lives at the corner of Limeport Pike and St. Joseph's Road, just down the street from the facility, said neighbors are happy with the high court's ruling. He also said most have no problem with the psychiatric patients remaining on the premises — with conditions.

''If they would ever get serious about taking care of people … those kinds of issues, and having a real guard at the gate instead of a patient, they can live there,'' Bloeser said after the board meeting. ''We're happy we've finally gotten there. We feel Judge Brenner really did a good job. So did our attorneys and the township attorneys and staff. ''I would have been shocked if the town had been overturned,'' Bloeser said. Dimmich said state Department of Public Works regulations give Mount Trexler 30 days to discontinue its programs, and the township probably will not fight that.

Psychiatry is not getting more popular, it seems