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Residents and emergency crews urge county to block plan to convert Bonhams Nursing Home into treatment center
Summary
At a Huntington Township town meeting, residents, volunteer EMS leaders and nursing‑home staff raised safety, staffing and notification concerns about an application to change Bonhams Nursing Home to a drug‑and‑alcohol treatment facility and urged turnout for a Luzerne County zoning hearing scheduled March 4.
Residents packed a Huntington Township meeting to oppose an application that would convert Bonhams Nursing Home into a drug‑and‑alcohol treatment facility, saying the change would strain already stretched volunteer emergency services and leave long‑term care residents at risk.
Dustin Thomas, fire chief of the Huntington Valley Volunteer Fire and EMS Company, told the meeting the region's volunteer responders are at capacity. "Right now, no volunteer department in our area could do that," Thomas said, describing a recent call that left his ambulance tied up for about four hours. He warned that adding a facility that could house up to 77 people would add frequent calls for overdoses, missing patients and assaults that the local volunteer system cannot absorb.
Neighbor and longtime…
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