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Daily Corlandt: Supervisor Puglisi Announces Montrose VA Saved

Sunday March 11, 2012

By Jessica Glenza

MONTROSE, N.Y. – Cortlandt Town Supervisor Linda Puglisi announced Thursday that an enhanced use lease threatening the Montrose Veterans hospital campus has expired.

The EUL was once being considered by the federal Department of Veterans Affairs to convert the bulk of the 62-year-old Franklin Delano Roosevelt Montrose VA campus into housing units.

“The enhanced use lease the federal government, the VA, was considering to move services elsewhere has expired,” said Puglisi to a room of about two dozen during a meeting to discuss the supervisor’s Montrose Enhancement Plan at the Hendrick Hudson Free Library.

Puglisi said that town officials would nevertheless remain vigilant, saying she wants the campus there “forever,” and that she wouldn’t allow the EUL to go forward under another name. “Our veterans throughout the years have bravely defended us and now we must continue to defend them,” Puglisi said in a release.

“Even though the EUL has expired we will always maintain vigilance on the Hudson Valley Healthcare System, due in part to economic times and Washington’s budget balancing,” said Willie Nazario, chairman of the Cortlandt Hudson Valley Veteran’s Committee, in a release.

Since 2004, the feds have targeted the Montrose campus for downsizing, meaning most services would move to the Castle Point or Nyack VA campuses. The EUL would have allowed up to 160 acres of the 172-acre campus to be developed, possibly into 400 housing units that weren’t exclusively for veterans.

The supervisor’s lobbying efforts to keep the campus open caught the attention of Rep. Nan Hayworth (R - Mount Kisco), since both Castle Point and the Montrose VA are in her 19th congressional district. Hayworth even introduced a piece of legislation to keep the campus from being downsized or developed, H.R. 2642, or the Hudson Valley VA Health Care Campus Protection Act.

According to Nancy Winter, spokesperson for the Hudson Valley VA, the Castle Point, Montrose and seven outpatient clinics serve more than 25,000 veterans in the Hudson Valley.