County pushes state to use 'old' Vets' Home
OXFORD – Chenango County officials are continuing their efforts to reverse the state health department’s plans to tear down the New York State Veterans’ Home in Oxford after staff and residents move over to a new facility in the fall.
Both a timeline and the costs for demolishing the 1970s era home are in this year’s proposed state budget.
Representatives of the Social Services department and Health and Human Services Committee have met with state officials on at least two occasions, hoping to find ways to reuse the 242-bed structure, quite possibly as an assisted living facility for the county’s growing aged population.
Construction of a new, $66 million 220,000 square foot nursing home for the state’s war veterans began in 2006. It is located in front of the current building on county Route 32 in Oxford. A former home that served vets on the same site from 1897 through the 1970s was demolished to make way for the current building.
After an outcry by county supervisors early last year, the Chenango County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution in June 2007 urging the New York State Department of Health to find a use for the existing structure.
DSS Commissioner Bette Osborne reported to members of her standing committee Tuesday that a feasibility study was underway, but government funding sources, such as Medicaid, would not be applicable to cover the cost of building an assisted living facility.
“We hope there would be some reuse of the building, which would also create more jobs,” she said.
County officials have been accompanied by New York State Assemblyman Clifford W. Crouch to meetings with vets’ home executives. Crouch said Wednesday there may also be some restrictions in the scope of the new building project that would prevent the two structures from being adjacent to each other.
“That’s not totally insurmountable,” Crouch said when reached by cell phone on Wednesday. “But no new opportunities have risen to the top at this point in time.”
Town of Smyrna Supervisor James Bays said he was “concerned” that the feasibility study wasn’t yet complete, and recommended that the committee ask Osborne “to keep right on it.”
Both a timeline and the costs for demolishing the 1970s era home are in this year’s proposed state budget.
Representatives of the Social Services department and Health and Human Services Committee have met with state officials on at least two occasions, hoping to find ways to reuse the 242-bed structure, quite possibly as an assisted living facility for the county’s growing aged population.
Construction of a new, $66 million 220,000 square foot nursing home for the state’s war veterans began in 2006. It is located in front of the current building on county Route 32 in Oxford. A former home that served vets on the same site from 1897 through the 1970s was demolished to make way for the current building.
After an outcry by county supervisors early last year, the Chenango County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution in June 2007 urging the New York State Department of Health to find a use for the existing structure.
DSS Commissioner Bette Osborne reported to members of her standing committee Tuesday that a feasibility study was underway, but government funding sources, such as Medicaid, would not be applicable to cover the cost of building an assisted living facility.
“We hope there would be some reuse of the building, which would also create more jobs,” she said.
County officials have been accompanied by New York State Assemblyman Clifford W. Crouch to meetings with vets’ home executives. Crouch said Wednesday there may also be some restrictions in the scope of the new building project that would prevent the two structures from being adjacent to each other.
“That’s not totally insurmountable,” Crouch said when reached by cell phone on Wednesday. “But no new opportunities have risen to the top at this point in time.”
Town of Smyrna Supervisor James Bays said he was “concerned” that the feasibility study wasn’t yet complete, and recommended that the committee ask Osborne “to keep right on it.”
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