North East residents confront Granite Ridge officials over migrant children facility
NORTH EAST — Officials from Granite Ridge and the company that would operate an influx care facility for unaccompanied migrant children detained at the southern border took the hot seat Thursday to detail their plans for the first time since they became public on March 24.
They were met with a litany of complaints and a slew of questions from a contentious crowd of more than 200 people.
At a meeting on the 70-acre campus, Jonathan Ehrenfeld, the Baltimore-based owner of Granite Ridge, William Unger, director of operations for Granite Ridge, and Daniel Berkon, the founder of Culmen International, discussed how the two entities became prospective partners in the summer of 2022 and why, after exploring a variety of uses, the historic property could now play a role in the federal immigration crisis.
"We've been investing to maintain and improve the property on a number of fronts," Ehrenfeld said, noting that the property is operating at a deficit and that he's trying to lower its tax bill by challenging its current valuation. "...We're pleased we've been able to invest in certain components of this project, unfortunately what we've learned is that the sheer size and scale of the project is such that it is difficult to maintain absent a large user."
Berkon said Culmen International, the Alexandria, Va.-based federal contractor that the Erie Times-News first identified last week, became aware of the property from an online real estate listing from the previous owner, Mercyhurst University, but learned it had already been sold.
Culmen had, by that point, already taken over operations of an influx care facility at the Dallas Convention Center from the Red Cross. Some 2,300 unaccompanied children were under Culmen International's care for 10 weeks.
"While it was an emergency situation, it (convention center) wasn't conducive to a temporary boarding school for teenagers," Berkon said. "There weren't outside facilities. There weren't classroom facilities. We decided that if we were to get involved in this in the future, we really wanted to focus on a campus type of environment."
More: Granite Ridge partner seeking workers for 'influx care facility' for migrant children in Erie
Here's what they said:
Nothing is certain, or as Ehrenfeld put it, "This is not a foregone conclusion." There is no contract in place between Culmen International and Ehrenfeld.
It's Culmen International — not the federal government — that is considering Granite Ridge as a potential site to fulfill a government contract. The federal government would still be required to approve the site.
Culmen International on March 7 secured what's known as an IDIQ (indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity) contract, along with at least eight other potential contractors, to provide housing for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement unaccompanied migrant children program, according to federal contract data. Collectively, the contract could be worth up to $75 billion. It expires March 6, 2028, but could run for 10 years.
Officials said the project would create hundreds of jobs. Berkon said that Culmen began advertising positions for the proposed influx care facility to gauge the potential of the local workforce. The job postings have been removed from Culmen's website since an Erie Times-News report about them last week.
However, the federal government could immediately strike Granite Ridge from consideration if it requires as part of its forthcoming request-for-proposal that influx care facilities be located within 250 miles of the southern border. Berkon said this provision was included in a draft RFP. The final RFP is expected to be released in June. Awards could be made in September.
Should such a provision preclude Granite Ridge from being used as an influx care facility, Culmen is exploring other sites that would be eligible.
Children typically stay in an influx care facility for no more than 30 days until the Department of Health and Human Services can transfer custody to a sponsor, which is usually a parent or relative, while legal proceedings to determine their immigration status are underway. A child turns who turns 18 while in the custody of the federal government is deported to their country of origin by the Department of Homeland Security, Berkon said.
Initially, a contract for use of the site would be for one year, but the federal government would have the option of extending it annually for a total of five years.
Children would not be allowed outside of the campus at any time. Unarmed security would watch over them at all hours. They would receive six hours of schooling each day. There would be no impact on local schools.
A security fence would be placed around the perimeter of the property. Federal rules mandate that no one be able to see in or out of the barrier. Berkon said Culmen International would have some discretion over the dimensions and look of the fence, and he denied rumors that it would be 12-feet in height.
Granite Ridge will honor the lengths of the leases of all current tenants of the apartments and town houses on the campus.
Berkon said that in the past, the Office of Refugee Resettlement has divided children by gender and age: "Tender age children" from birth to age 12, and teens between 13 and 17 years old. Going forward, however, it's possible children of all ages, up to 17, could be grouped together.
Most of the unaccompanied migrant children apprehended at the southern border are from Central American countries like Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Berkon noted that Granite Ridge might also house children from either Afghanistan or Ukraine.
Public pushes back against proposed facility
Once the microphone was handed over to the public, emotions grew elevated, with residents, elected officials and one former Granite Ridge employee all raising concerns about the impact an influx care facility would have on the North East community and its roughly 10,000 residents.
"When I heard you bought this facility, I was excited and I think a lot of people in this town were excited, because you have a great reputation. You own S.P.I.R.E.," Amanda Steeneck told Ehrenfeld, referring to the Geneva, Ohio, sports training complex. "We were excited to have you here, but do you think future communities will be excited to have you purchase property in their town if you bring an influx care facility to this town?"
Amy Burniston said she looked through the window that Ehrenfeld, Berkon and Unger stood in front of and could see a school bus drive down Route 89 as the meeting was taking place.
A mother of three, Burniston said she's trying to teach her young children about inclusion.
"I'm telling my kids to be inclusive, to love everyone, and here they're going to get on their school bus to go to school," she said. "They're going to see a 10-foot, 12-foot fence, with 13- to 17-year-olds detained inside. What about the optics of that?"
Jennifer Beardsley, who lives across the street from Granite Ridge, said she doubted claims by Berkon that the fence around the property would be only six-feet tall. Her six-foot tall son could easily scale the fence in a few seconds, she said.
"These immigrants have climbed 20-foot walls to get here," she said. "You're telling me a mesh wall is going to hold them in? ...Either you're putting up a 20-foot-tall or higher wall or that wall is going to have barbed wire on it. You're telling me they're not going to get together and use each other like a ladder to climb out?"
Borough Councilwoman Heather Jones demanded to know which elected officials in North East Ehrenfeld had been speaking to about the plans.
"I just want to know who they are?" Jones said, pressing Ehrenfeld and Unger for a response. "That's it."
"I appreciate the question, but we've responded with the answer," Ehrenfeld said, which led to an uproar of shouting among those in attendance.
"I have nothing more for you," Jones said as the crowd began to calm. "This is all B.S."
Ehrenfeld said his team has not yet looked into applicable zoning laws of the borough and township — the property straddles both — but they would not attempt to "circumvent" regulations as several people alleged.
Removal of religious artifacts, crosses
Residents didn't just pepper Ehrenfeld, Unger and Berkon about the possibility of a migrant facility. They also expressed their displeasure over the removal of religious artifacts from St. Mary's Chapel before the property was sold. It was the Roman Catholic Diocese that opted to deconsecrate the chapel, including taking down stain-glass windows, Ehrenfeld said.
"That was not our decision," he noted multiple times.
One woman pressed him further: "Did you order the cross off of the chapel? That was when all the relics were gone, months later."
Ehrenfeld said he wasn't responsible and was unaware of who was.
"You should know all of that, it's your property," the woman said.
"We did know," said Justin Nagelson, who worked on the property for 15 years, including as its property manager under Ehrenfeld's ownership. "I worked here at the time. We hired (a company) to come in and chop them all down. We took away like 10 of them. We didn't donate them like we were supposed to."
Nagelson, who resigned March 22, two days before going public with Ehrenfeld's plans to potentially use the facility to house migrant children, said a company used sawzalls to cut off the arms and tops off crosses and detach them from buildings, including the chapel's iconic steeple. The company's bid was about $5,000 lower than a competitor's, he said.
"Jonathan, you knew. Be honest," he said to cheers and applause from the audience.
During the meeting, Nagelson, who resigned because he felt Granite Ridge officials weren't being forthcoming with tenants about their plans, posed multiple pointed questions to his former bosses.
"Next question," Ehrenfeld said to Nagelson at one point, ignoring his inquiry and calling on the next person in line.
Audience members became angry.
"Let him speak," one person shouted.
"He can have my question," said another.
Ehrenfeld extended the meeting by about a half an hour to take field more questions. At the end of the meeting, he tried to reassure the audience that he was taking their concerns into account.
"There's certainly a lot of anger and resentment and I accept that," Ehrenfeld said. "And I just want you to know that from my perspective I don't look at that as a negative. I look at that as folks who care about their community, care about their families and care about their friends. We are listening. We don't have all the answers and, as I said, this is not a foregone conclusion."
Resident Dana Richter had his doubts, though.
"After the smoke clears, we all leave, and you all sit down together and everything, is this thing going to happen anyway?" he said.
Before Thursday's meeting, Unger of Granite Ridge told members of the media that he would allow them to take notes and still photographs, but that they could not record video or audio of the meeting.
"We want to have an open conversation with the residents," Unger said.
However, several public officials were in attendance, including state Rep. Jake Banta, Erie County Councilman Brian Shank and Erie County Executive Brenton Davis, who Ehrenfeld thanked for helping arrange the meeting and who gave opening remarks. Also in attendance were all three North East Township supervisors and several members of North East Borough Council.
The Erie Times-News objected to Unger's order on the grounds that a quorum of at least one public body was present, therefore constituting an open meeting under state law, and because several other elected officials were involved who could be tasked with making critical decisions about Granite Ridge's plans. The Erie Times-News proceeded to record video and audio of the meeting without further interference.
Matthew Rink can be reached at mrink@timesnews.com or on Twitter at @ETNRink.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Residents confront Granite Ridge officials over proposed migrant children facility
