Fort reuse panel: We want Vets clinic too
Advocates call for inpatient facility on base
BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

EATONTOWN - The leaders of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority say they hear the cries of military veterans who fear losing access to affordable health care at the local military base.

As both Fort Monmouth and its Patterson Army Health Care Clinic (PAHC) prepare to shut down under the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, the public-private authority has pledged to support the state's efforts to keep a Veterans Administration (VA) outpatient clinic near its current location at the local U.S. Army base.

The PAHC, operated by U.S. Department of Defense Healthcare, is slated to close on Oct. 1, 2010, the beginning of the federal government's fiscal year 2011, according to Ellen K. Stein, state director of the Division of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMAVA).

Addressing the state-sanctioned authority at its Sept. 26 meeting in the council chambers at Eatontown Borough Hall, Stein explained that though the VA clinic is housed inside the PAHC, it is a separate operation overseen by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Nonetheless, the VA clinic, which Fort Monmouth officials have said serves as many as 23,000 military veterans, might need a new home after the PAHC closes, Stein told the authority and about 70 other persons in attendance

"The Veterans Administration has made a commitment that they want to remain in northern Monmouth County and to remain close to the current Fort Monmouth location," Stein said.

Presently, the VA is looking at three options to continue its outpatient services, one of which would be to sign a new lease with whoever might purchase the existing PAHC building, Stein went on.

A second option would be to sign a lease agreement to use space in one of the area's local hospitals, she continued. As a third option, the VA would seek and ultimately sign a lease at another location inside Monmouth County to be determined, Stein concluded.

However, a contingent of advocates for military veterans, including some who traveled from as far away as Atlantic City according to attendance lists, believe that Stein and others at the state's DMAVA offices missed one more option.

Whether the VA clinic stays or relocates outside of Fort Monmouth, it ought to be reconfigured into a full-service, inpatient veterans' medical center to meet the need of a growing military retiree population, according to Lois Braynes, a spokesperson for the advocates.

Presently, New Jersey only has two full-scale, highly technological, inpatient facilities to serve more than 900,000 military veterans of various ages and medical conditions living in the heavily populated state, said Braynes of Atlantic City.

To receive inpatient, technologically advanced care, New Jersey's veterans must travel to VA hospitals in either East Orange or Brick Township, the only two full-service hospitals in the state, said Braynes, adding that she herself has transported those patients to those sites.

"The vets' hospitals are located in God-forsaken places," Braynes said. "For over 90 years, nothing has been done for our wounded, sick veterans."

Other less-populated states such as West Virginia have more hospitals to serve a population of veterans nowhere near the size of New Jersey's, Braynes said.

"[Veterans] want a state-of-the-art hospital," Braynes said. "It could result in thousands of jobs."

As Braynes launched into an anecdote about veterans she has assisted, authority Chairman Robert Lucky warned her of the three-minute time limit on public speaking.

"I appreciate your point, but I have to cut you off," Lucky said.

As Braynes and the other advocates, including some veterans dressed in uniform, protested, authority Vice Chairwoman Virginia Bauer spoke up.

"We certainly understand," Bauer told the advocates. "We hear you and we agree."

A full-service inpatient facility in Monmouth County would be welcomed by the authority, Lucky said.

"I'd love to have a hospital like that," Lucky said.

"The public is watching to find out how well you get this," Braynes said. "I know you're getting bored with it.."

During the public portion, Monmouth Beach resident Lynn Zurgalla showed support for the inpatient veterans hospital as well as full public disclosure about other uses under consideration by the authority.

Identifying herself as a retired environmental biophysicist, Zurgalla proposed a variety of uses including a campus for "incubator companies" who would promote "clean energy," a publicly funded university, and the veterans hospital.

"We have a reputation in Monmouth County as corrupt," Zurgalla said. "What can you do to benefit the public interest?

"I would like to see more public input on something that would benefit everyone in Monmouth County," she said, "not just something that would benefit private industry."

Lucky advised Zurgalla to forward her suggestions to the authority via its Web site.

Zurgalla persisted.

"The public would like to be reported to more directly rather than to just have to go through the Web site," Zurgalla said.

The VA clinic, open since June 2003, was originally opened to "ease overcrowding and long service delays that were being experienced by the New Jersey veterans community," according to materials distributed by Stein's office at the meeting.

"New Jersey has one of the largest elderly veterans populations in the country," the DMAVA materials state. "The clinic is part of the New Jersey Veterans Healthcare Network, an affiliate of the federal Department of Veterans Affairs."

The Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority is charged with finding new uses for Fort Monmouth's property once the installation is relocated to the Aberdeen (Md.) Proving Ground in 2011.