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A true ‘experience’ at eclipse events at Penn State WB and Wyoming Seminary

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Eclipse-watching tops Monday activities in Wilkes-Barre

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; A businessman who received zoning approval to locate a drug and alcohol treatment center on the edge of the downtown has moved a step closer with the purchase of a vacant warehouse on Hill Street.</p><p>Jim Casey bought the property from Bottling Group LLC of White Plains, N.Y., for $350,000, according to a deed recorded on Aug. 18 with the Luzerne County Recorder of Deeds.</p><p>A month earlier, the city&#8217;s Zoning Hearing Board approved the site for a 50-bed men&#8217;s facility to offer long-term detoxification programs between three and six months in length.</p><p>Casey, 70, of Wilkes-Barre, did not immediately return a call Monday.</p><p>Following the zoning hearing on July 19, Casey, who buys and renovates buildings, said he has a $1 million line of credit at-the-ready to convert the vacant warehouse at 26 Hill St. and fill an unmet need for the area hit hard by the opioid epidemic.</p><p>&#8220;I hope by the spring,&#8221; Casey said of an anticipated opening. &#8220;I don&#8217;t see a year as being very conservative.&#8221;</p><p>The center would differ from the James A. Casey House, his other center on South Main Street that provides men clinical treatment and job placement.</p><p>&#8220;What we do from there is we recommend that you go to a place like the Casey House to get work, &#8221; Casey explained. &#8220;Where that pays off is that your clinical is behind you and now you&#8217;re ready to go to work.&#8221;</p><p>Casey and his sons Shane and James initially wanted a much larger center for a specific group to undergo treatment when they first went for zoning approval in May. They wanted 150 beds for state parole violators, but ran into some opposition that the center would be much like a prison in the industrial area not far from a low-income apartment complex and other residences.</p><p>When they returned a second time, the Caseys scaled back the project to 100 beds and switched to local patients released from short-term care and needing further treatment. The center would draw from Luzerne, Lackawanna, Wyoming and Susquehanna counties and exclude sex offenders, people with violent histories and other behavioral and developmental problems. The center would work in conjunction with the Pittsburgh-based Community Care Behavioral Health Organization and be paid through Medicaid.</p><p>The final version that received approval had 50 beds and would give preference to Wilkes-Barre residents.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Jim Casey moved a step closer to converting a vacant warehouse on Hill Street in Wilkes-Barre into a long-term drug and alcohol treatment center for men with the purchase of the property last week.</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_Hill-St.-property.jpg</photo0><caption0>Jim Casey moved a step closer to converting a vacant warehouse on Hill Street in Wilkes-Barre into a long-term drug and alcohol treatment center for men with the purchase of the property last week.</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Developer buys Wilkes-Barre warehouse for drug/alcohol treatment center