Delaware Plaza Clinic Wins Approval

By Wayne Witkowski

DINGMANS FERRY — Southern Pike County residents will have quicker, direct access for their basic medical needs sometime this year.
The Delaware Township Board of Supervisors, after a half-hour public hearing during their regular meeting last week, unanimously approved a conditional use for a medical clinic to open at Delaware Plaza, anchored by Weis Market, on Route 739. The approval allows Route 739 LLC to convert contiguous, empty storefronts at the plaza into a medical facility that will provide services such as general urgent care, blood testing and imaging that includes X-rays, CAT scans and sonograms.
Some urgent care centers in the region provide help for broken bones. The influx of patients dramatically increased at the neighboring Middle Smithfield Township Urgent Care in Monroe County during the COVID-19 outbreak when it provided testing and results for many visitors before mass produced test kits were made available to the public.
Milford attorney John Stieh, who represented Route 739 LLP’s developer of the plaza that opened two years ago, said Northwell Health, based in Long Island, N.Y., would be the provider. Stieh was unable to give an official name for what he called a “medical clinic” that likely will include the Northwell logo.
“We looked at the project for several years and felt it was a viable one for there,” said Stieh during the hearing. Stieh clarified that it “is not going to be a major medical facility of an extreme nature, like an emergency room of a hospital.”
“We hope to have it open in 2023, in the foreseeable future,” said Stieh when asked after the meeting. “There’s a lot to do with some of the equipment they’re bringing in.”...................................For more information subscribe to our paper.

Nonprofit Says Warehouses Threaten Water

By Jeremy Van Duyne

MILFORD — Last Tuesday night Milford Borough Hall was the host of a special presentation regarding local waterways and the many different issues that they are facing.
The presenter said that one of the most common contributors to disrupting water quality throughout the state is the expansion of warehouses and distribution center developments, an issue that Eastern Pike County is currently confronting.
The presentation was given by the group PennFuture, delivered by a team specifically tailored to the Pocono and Delaware River region. PennFuture is a nonprofit group that helps communities throughout the State of Pennsylvania become educated about environmental issues and gives them tools to build better environmentally friendly communities.
“We are a statewide environmental advocacy organization” said Donna Kohut, Campaign Manager for the group. “We do specialize in policy as well as legal and in both advocacy and outreach.”
Among the central points of the presentation was the topic of special protection waters, particularly what are designated as “exceptional value” water sources. Kohut said that these are considered the cleanest waterways in the entire state, and the Pocono Mountain region has the largest concentration of them in the entire state.
These are particular streams designated by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) as being the cleanest in the state and thus have the upmost importance due to the role they play in providing various things such as drinking water and aquatic life. Under state law, these streams are the most protected and are thus given the most resources in doing so.
Basically, these waterways are not allowed to be degraded under any circumstances, Kohut said.”...................................For more information subscribe to our paper.