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DOWNTOWN SITE STILL POSSIBLE FOR NEW LOUISVILLE
VA HOSPITAL -- VA reduces size center needs.
May use less than 35 acres.
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http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/
pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070502/NEWS
01/705021175/1008/NEWS01
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Downtown site possible for VA hospital, Yarmuth
says
Agency reduces size center needs
By Laura Ungar
lungar@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Department of Veterans Affairs officials, who previously said they
needed at least 35 acres to build a new medical center in Louisville,
agreed yesterday to also consider smaller sites, a spokesman for U.S.
Rep. John Yarmuth said.
That means downtown locations remain a possibility, Yarmuth spokesman
Stuart Perelmuter said.
Yarmuth cast doubt last month on the idea of building the hospital
downtown, saying he wasn't sure if there was enough land.
"They agreed to be more flexible on the acreage. … Everything's open at
this point," said Perelmuter, who made the comments after Yarmuth met
with VA officials and representatives from the University of Louisville
and city government. "They weren't talking numbers anymore."
In a statement, Yarmuth said the meeting was "very positive and
constructive."
VA officials announced last summer that the aging complex off Zorn
Avenue would be replaced with one of the nation's first new veterans
hospitals in more than 10 years. Federal officials and Yarmuth's
predecessor, Anne Northup, said then that they expected it to be
downtown.
City officials and some veterans have also said they would like to see
it downtown, largely because it would be convenient to other hospitals
and the University of Louisville School of Medicine, which has a working
relationship with the VA hospital.
But many veterans object.
William Preston Burrell of Louisville, an 84-year-old World War II
veteran, said he doesn't see what the VA would gain by putting the
hospital downtown, because U of L doctors now come to the Zorn Avenue
location.
"I like the location where it is," said Burrell, a former member of the
Army Medical Corps who lives near the hospital. "Frankly, downtown, it
would probably be too hard to park."
Perelmuter said veterans and other residents will soon get a chance to
voice their views.
VA officials will tour possible sites with Yarmuth, then make a list of
locations that would suit the hospital's needs and hold a public forum.
This should all happen by the end of the summer, according to Yarmuth's
office, with the new hospital possibly opening by 2012.
Reporter Laura Ungar can be reached at (502) 582-7190.
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Larry Scott --
