Pocono News Section

Veteran's Clinic Coming to Central PA?

Veteran's Clinic Coming to Central PA? - Monday, March 10, 2008 at 4:44PM EST

? Reported by: Jeremy Deebel
Monday, Mar 10, 2008 @04:44pm EST
Middleburg, Snyder County and Sunbury, Northumberland County- An announcement made late last week has Central Pennsylvania veterans excited about the possibility of a community based outpatient clinic coming to either Snyder or Northumberland County. Northumberland County Commissioner Frank Sawicki said, "I'm just very thankful that they decided to put a clinic somewhere in this area.”

The clinic would provide primary health care, preventive health services, and more. The clinics are subsidiaries of full-sized VA medical centers, such as the ones in Wilkes-Barre and Lebanon.

Snyder County Commissioner Richard Bickhart noted, "There isn't any facility that's real close to the area. And with gas prices and our veterans population getting older, that's pretty hard on them to travel that far." Commissioner Sawicki added, "It's a long drive, you've also got to cover a lot of mountains, because you're crossing the Appalachian chain, and that's hard in the wintertime."

Snyder County's Director of Veteran Affairs, Roger Snook, noted that besides the economic reasons, excessive travel distances can be very stressful on older veterans. "If we can eliminate a lot of the miles and that type of thing, it's just a betterment for not only the veteran, but also the family, or whoever has the responsibility of seeing that they get access to these medical centers," Snook said.

If officials want to use an existing structure, one that has been suggested by Snyder County commissioners is the Selinsgrove Center, on Route 522. The state-owned mental health facility has several suitable, empty buildings that could be renovated for a clinic.

But as much as both the Snyder and Northumberland County commissioners would like to have the clinic call their county home, the decision is not theirs to make. "Of course, the V.A. will decide where this is located, not a county commissioner. And hopefully, this is the first of many to come into the area," Commissioner Sawicki explained.

Northumberland County boasts about 10,000 veterans, while over 3,000 live in Snyder County. Regardless of where the proposed clinic is built, we're told local veterans here should be pleased to have a facility closer to home. "We would like to have anything closer than we have now," Commissioner Bickhart added.

The proposed clinic has been approved by the local Veteran’s Affairs Center in Wilkes-Barre, and is now pending before the regional V.A. office in Pittsburgh.