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VETS AND OFFICIALS DISAPPOINTED WITH PLAN TO MOVE

SERVICES FROM MONTROSE VA -- "Veterans will lay down in

front of the bulldozers if the VA starts bulldozing existing

buildings before the new buildings are up and running."

Montrose, New York VA

For more about the Montrose VA, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/ses
search.php?q=montrose&op=and

For more about the Castle Point VA, use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/ses
search.php?q=castle+point&op=ph

Story here... http://www.lohud.com/
apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2007102
3/NEWS02/710230347/-1/rss01

Story below:

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Local officials, vets disappointed with VA plan to move services from Montrose to Castle Point

By SUSAN ELAN AND BRIAN HOWARD
THE JOURNAL NEWS

MONTROSE - Local veterans and government officials are expressing disappointment over a federal decision to transfer some medical services from the Montrose Veterans Affairs hospital to Castle Point in Fishkill.

At the same time, they are expressing cautious optimism that a local plan backed by Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano for a veterans village with housing, shopping, medical care and training may win approval from VA officials in Washington, D.C.

Gordon H. Mansfield, acting secretary of Veterans Affairs, announced late last week that he would support an advisory panel's recommendation to transfer 105 nursing home beds and 70 psychiatric beds from Montrose to Castle Point.

Remaining at Montrose are 21 beds for treating veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, 42 beds for substance-abuse treatment and 53 for homeless veterans struggling with psychological and social disorders, said Nancy Winter, a regional VA spokeswoman. The plan also calls for construction of a multi-specialty outpatient center at Montrose and the modernization of the Castle Point campus.

Dan Griffin, executive director of Vietnam Veterans of America for Westchester County, said yesterday that he feared the Montrose outpatient center might never get built because the VA lacks money.

"Veterans will lay down in front of the bulldozers if the VA starts bulldozing existing buildings before the new buildings are up and running," Griffin said.

Winter had no time frame for the "construction sequence."

The decision to transfer nursing home and psychiatric beds fails to take into account the increasing number of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who will need the services at Montrose, said Freemont Reif, chairman of the 100-member Cortlandt Veterans Advisory Council.

Cortlandt Councilman Joseph Cerreto, a colonel in the Army Reserves who heads a legal unit out of the Bronx and who is the town's liaison to the local committee examining that decision, said construction of a new ambulatory surgery unit makes sense, given the country's military commitments.

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, both Democrats; Reps. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, and Eliot Engel, D-Bronx; and Spano all have urged maintaining services at Montrose, which was built to deal with World War II veterans.

"The decision to move inpatient psychiatric and nursing home services away from Montrose was unfortunately made without the support of adequate strategic plans for mental health and long-term care and without sufficient dialogue with the local veterans who will be most directly affected by such a change," Clinton said in a press release.

Jerry Donnellan, director of the Rockland County Veterans Service Agency, said the transfer of services to Castle Point would have little effect for veterans from his county, who travel about the same distance to each hospital.

Ronald Tocci, commissioner of veterans affairs for the state Department of Labor, said he and Spano met with Mansfield several weeks ago to discuss the local plan to convert riverfront land at Montrose into a veterans village. The plan incorporates an earlier proposal by a group known as the Montrose Elders and has the support of that group and local officials, Tocci said.

"It was very well received," Tocci said. "We don't think there are any competing proposals."

The potential development would provide housing for older and younger veterans, including a continuing-care retirement community, senior-citizen housing and potential expansion of the state-run nursing home there, as well as townhouses for veterans and their families. A portion of the housing would be offered at affordable rates. Other space on the campus could be used for day care and a nursing school.

The VA retains ownership of the land and can determine and control its reuse.

Cortlandt Supervisor Linda Puglisi called the veterans village plan a "partial step."

"It's a compromise to some degree, but it's not enough," she said. "We will continue to lobby" for continued and increased veterans services there."

Reach Susan Elan at selan@lohud.com  or 914-666-6205.

-------------------------

Larry Scott  --

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