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Western Center moves delayed Parents protest the planned transfer of two severely disabled residents to a group home Tuesday, February 01, 2000 By Mike Bucsko, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Frank Soldano waited yesterday for a confrontation he didn't want and, fortunately, didn't get.
At least, not yet.
Soldano's son, Keith, 39, was one of two Western Center residents who were supposed to be moved yesterday from the Canonsburg institution to a group home in Robinson.
But after Soldano and other parents of residents showed up in force to protest the transfers, with representatives of the media in tow, state Department of Public Welfare officials decided not to move Keith Soldano and Larry Smith to the group home, which is operated by Allegheny Valley Schools.
Western Center Director Richard Kuppleweiser said that it was likely the state will examine its legal standing to move the residents before it acts again.
Kuppleweiser said that in moving residents from the institution to group homes, the state is carrying out provisions of a 1992 settlement of a federal lawsuit filed by residents' families. The settlement allowed Western Center administrators to move residents to group homes if it was appropriate for their conditions.
The state welfare department decided in January 1998 to close Western Center and move all of its 380 residents to group homes. So far, nearly 300 have been moved. Sixty-four residents remain at the Washington County institution, said Jay Pagni, spokesman for the welfare department. All of those who remain are mentally retarded and some also have other disabilities.
The institution was slated to close permanently in June, but that did not happen. One of the obstacles came from Washington County Common Pleas President Judge Thomas Gladden, who gave guardianship for the remaining residents to their parents.
In the previous instances in which residents were transferred, some families favored the move. In others, either the residents did not have relatives who could have objected or their parents did not have guardianship, said Daniel Torisky, president of the Western Center board of trustees.
Without the declaration of guardianship, the parents did not have standing to make objections on behalf of the children.
Torisky's son, Edward, is a Western Center resident.
Yesterday was the first opportunity for parents who have guardianship of their children to object to the group home moves, Torisky said.
Soldano and his wife, Ruth, remained with their son, Keith, in the lobby of Sherwood Towers on the Western Center campus for most of the afternoon. Keith, who cannot see and is fed through a tube in his stomach, has been at Western Center since 1963 when he was 19 months old.
The Soldanos, of Squirrel Hill, said they were angry at the treatment they have received from state officials and they feel their views have been disregarded. The couple want to keep their son at Western Center because they believe that is where he will receive the best treatment, they said.
"They take care of [Keith] perfect here," Frank Soldano said. "He's part of the family. We feel he's secure because we know he's going to be all right."
Soldano, echoing the sentiments of the other parents who were present yesterday, said he is angry about the state's decision to close Western Center. He said that, if plans to move his son had proceeded yesterday, he would have wrapped his arms around Keith to prevent it.
"The government orders this to close and they don't care who it hurts because they're going to close it," he said. "I'm very upset. My wife's very upset. They have no respect for us."
Soldano, 77, said he and his wife, 72, have physical ailments themselves that have not been helped by the stress of worrying over the proposed transfer of their son.
Pagni said the group home to which Keith Soldano and Larry Smith would be transferred would provide the same level of care as the men now receive at Western Center. The group home would house four residents, which Pagni said would allow Soldano and Smith to receive "probably more individualized care" than they receive at Western Center.
Audrey Smith of Belle Vernon, Larry's mother, is skeptical.
"I don't trust [group homes]," she said. "There have been deaths out in the community and I don't trust [Larry] being out in the community."
Kuppleweiser said Western Center will not take any action regarding the transfers without first notifying the parents.
Pagni said parents have generally been notified a week before any transfers occurred, but Audrey Smith and Frank Soldano said they were told Friday of the impending transfers yesterday.
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