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Bassett Medical Center, Cooperstown, NY
At the SEQR DEIS public hearing on December 7, 2018 it was stated, "Many cities have downtown hospitals, even Cooperstown has a downtown hospital." Thank you, another #mvhsowntown Benchmark Hospital to compare and contrast.
Bassett Medical Center (BMC), in Otsego County, is part of the larger Bassett Healthcare Network. From their website...
"Bassett maintains affiliations with a number of medical, nursing and allied health programs and schools, all of which help attract practitioners to this rural region. The latest development, launched in 2010, is the Columbia-Bassett Medical School – a hybrid program with an innovative curriculum and a course of studies focusing on ethics, evidenced-based medicine, health care systems, integration, leadership and business management."
Cooperstown is a small town, just 1.8 sq mi (4.7 km2), not a city. Population estimated in 2016 to be just 1,770 persons, while Utica is 17 sq miles in size, having 60,000 people. The Bassett Medical Center is on the edge of the town in a very quiet neighborhood. Comparing this hospital to the proposed Utica hospital makes little sense.
Cooperstown's BMC is a "General Medical & Surgical", classified as a "Large Rural Hospital", with 'Nurse Staffing' rated, "Very High"- [Ref.]
Cooperstown's hospital is not a "urban" and it is not "downtown". This town also did not propose bulldozing a significant portion of their business district to build this hospital. Not a comparison, but if some wish it is they must acknowledge Bassett was built and uses buildings constructed in 1922 - that's 96 years ago! [Ref.]
November 7, 2022 - Bassett Healthcare Network to Leverage Digital Health & Rural Healthcare Needs with Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health Fund Partnership.
December 7, 2021 - Five takeaways from Optum, Bassett's partnership eight months later, ecker's Healthcare Offers Update on Healthcare Network.
May 25, 2021 - In the news, Bassett Healthcare Network and Optum Launch Strategic Relationship Optum is part of UnitedHealth Group, the world's seventh largest company by revenue and the largest healthcare company by revenue, and the largest insurance company by net premiums.[Ref.]
December 9, 2018 - Read the downtown Cooperstown "business district" description [Ref.], zero mention of a hospital...
At last week's @MVHealthSystem SEQR DEIS public hearing, a project supported stated, "Many cities have downtown hospitals, even Cooperstown." Let's consider this terrible comparison: a @BassettNetwork hospital vs. #mvhsdowntown, we've begun here... https://t.co/G6HWagRpVt pic.twitter.com/3ECnd5WtSp
— #NoHospitalDowntown (@NoHospitalDwtn) December 9, 2018
Business district: Superficially, the downtown commercial district looks not unlike it did in the 1970s. It has undergone significant change since the late 20th century.
Through the 1970s, Main Street was still home to at least five grocery stores, including an A&P. Western Auto had a branch on Main Street and J.J. Newberry's had built, in 1960, a two-story five-and-dime with a fountain and lunch counter. Smalley's, a stage theater converted into a movie theater, had a single screen across from a Farm & Home store. With its post office, library, and the Baseball Hall of Fame, Main Street resembled a true village square.
Today, the village has fewer traditional services for year-round and seasonal residents. Once boasting half a dozen gas stations, the village now has two. Traditional grocers have been reduced to one, and in 1977 Great American was built on the outskirts of town, replacing the town's bowling alley. In 2010 it was converted to a Price Chopper. Hardware stores such as Western Auto, McGown's and Farm & Home have been displaced by an Ace Hardware just outside the village. Newberry's morphed into a single-floor general store with the basement stairs boarded up, and even this general store finally closed entirely in 2017. Sherry's Famous Restaurant closed in the late 1990s after more than half a century of business. Most Main Street shops now cater to the tourist trade and feature gifts and souvenirs.
The Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce, established in 1917, looks to develop business and trade in the Cooperstown region. Serving also as a visitor center in its main office, the Chamber also manages a seasonal kiosk on the corner of Main and Pioneer St for tourists.
Cooperstown was formerly served by the Cooperstown Municipal Airport, which was a two-runway facility fewer than two miles to the northwest of town center. That field closed in the 1960s. The village is now served by a small grass field in nearby Westville and a one-runway facility in Oneonta, NY.
You can help, please join us on Facebook #NoHospitalDowntown. Also consider adding your voice to Hundreds of People Saying, "No Hospital Downtown". Get to know BUD, that's the future of the Columbia Lafayette Neighborhood!
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