Children playing in classroom

Demolition Begins

CSC to Build Nursery for Abused Children
Community Services for Children (CSC) is preparing a new Infant/Toddler & Family Center on its campus in East Allentown. The Center will provide a unique therapeutic nursery for children who have suffered abuse or neglect, generally related to parental drug or alcohol abuse. Operations for the center are provided through Early Head Start and both Lehigh and Northampton County Children & Youth departments. The program began modestly in 2003 with 15 young children. Stimulus funding has expanded funded enrollment to 39. There are no other programs like it in the region.

To make way for the new Center, CSC is demolishing one of three buildings it owns adjacent to the Allentown State Hospital. This was previously known as “The Stepping Stone” building when The Allentown State Hospital owned all the buildings.

Removal of debris and abatement and removal of asbestos is scheduled for early April to mid May. The bags of debris will be removed daily and disposed of as outlined in PA EPA guidelines. Between mid May to early June, the building will be removed brick-by-brick. Site preparation and construction is expected from late summer to September 2011.
Contractors to date include Sargent Enterprises of Jim Thorpe for trash removal, Empire Wrecking Company of Reading, PA for abatement and demolition, Liberty Engineering of Allentown for civil engineering /site development, and Barry Isett & Associates of Trexlertown for Phase 1 environmental study.