County Board commends military, volunteers that made IRT a success
(Submitted Photo)
NORWICH – The Chenango County Board of Supervisors lauded the U.S. military and local community volunteers last week with the passing of a resolution recognizing efforts that made that latest IRT mission a success.
IRT (Innovative Readiness Training) is a community-military partnership that offers the community no-cost healthcare services while at the same time providing real-world training to service men and women to handle disaster situations.
The IRT initiative is led by the U.S. Department of Defense in conjunction with Greater Chenango Cares, a local organization comprised of Southern Tier 8, Chenango United Way, Chenango Health Network, Chenango County Panning Department, the county bureau of fire, the sheriff's office, Chenango SPCA, and the Norwich City School District.
More than 175 volunteers helped this year, clocking roughly 1,400 donated hours over the ten-day event.
After successful missions in 2015 and 2016, the third Greater Chenango Cares IRT was held July 11-20 at the Norwich High School. Community members received medical, optometry, dental, and veterinary services without charge.
A similar mission was held in Cortland County at the same time.
The Norwich site served 1,131 patients this year (animal and human). A total 6,160 procedures were performed, equaling $370,570 in no-cost services. Additionally, the Lourdes Mobile Dental Van provided 125 dental cleanings (valuing $14,000) at no cost.
“I would like to commend everyone involved in this exercise. It was great,” said Columbus Supervisor Tom Grace. He added that it's a good opportunity for people to see the effectives of government-run medical care.
“I think rather than just every year we say 'thank you for coming,' we start to look at our system currently,” he said. “I think we ought to look at this as an example of how we can improve our healthcare.”
Norwich City Supervisor Robert Jeffrey, applauding the event, also pointed out the benefit the county receives by paying the $10,000 contract with Southern Tier 8, the organization that applied for the IRT mission on behalf of Chenango County.
“Over the course of the last three IRTs, just with the medical portion, we probably had a return on investment of $2.5 million,” he said.
County leaders are considering another IRT to be held in Norwich next year, though not medical. Shane Butler, Chenagno County Director of Planning, said there's interest in an IRT engineering exercise instead. Southern Tier 8 would need to submit an application by the September due date.
Butler said if approved, the IRT engineering exercise could lead to improvements at the county fairgrounds, a new fire training facility for the County Fire Bureau, or carry out a number of other project proposals in the area.
IRT (Innovative Readiness Training) is a community-military partnership that offers the community no-cost healthcare services while at the same time providing real-world training to service men and women to handle disaster situations.
The IRT initiative is led by the U.S. Department of Defense in conjunction with Greater Chenango Cares, a local organization comprised of Southern Tier 8, Chenango United Way, Chenango Health Network, Chenango County Panning Department, the county bureau of fire, the sheriff's office, Chenango SPCA, and the Norwich City School District.
More than 175 volunteers helped this year, clocking roughly 1,400 donated hours over the ten-day event.
After successful missions in 2015 and 2016, the third Greater Chenango Cares IRT was held July 11-20 at the Norwich High School. Community members received medical, optometry, dental, and veterinary services without charge.
A similar mission was held in Cortland County at the same time.
The Norwich site served 1,131 patients this year (animal and human). A total 6,160 procedures were performed, equaling $370,570 in no-cost services. Additionally, the Lourdes Mobile Dental Van provided 125 dental cleanings (valuing $14,000) at no cost.
“I would like to commend everyone involved in this exercise. It was great,” said Columbus Supervisor Tom Grace. He added that it's a good opportunity for people to see the effectives of government-run medical care.
“I think rather than just every year we say 'thank you for coming,' we start to look at our system currently,” he said. “I think we ought to look at this as an example of how we can improve our healthcare.”
Norwich City Supervisor Robert Jeffrey, applauding the event, also pointed out the benefit the county receives by paying the $10,000 contract with Southern Tier 8, the organization that applied for the IRT mission on behalf of Chenango County.
“Over the course of the last three IRTs, just with the medical portion, we probably had a return on investment of $2.5 million,” he said.
County leaders are considering another IRT to be held in Norwich next year, though not medical. Shane Butler, Chenagno County Director of Planning, said there's interest in an IRT engineering exercise instead. Southern Tier 8 would need to submit an application by the September due date.
Butler said if approved, the IRT engineering exercise could lead to improvements at the county fairgrounds, a new fire training facility for the County Fire Bureau, or carry out a number of other project proposals in the area.
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