| Construction to begin on Providence Point
Construction begins this week on Providence Point -- a future continuing care retirement community in Scott Township. Baptist Homes of Western Pennsylvania will begin demolition at the Old Kane Hospital site tomorrow (Feb. 1). Scott board of commissioners previously approved finalized plans for the project last October contingent upon developer's agreement conditions. Those conditions have been met and officials approved the final land development plan last week. Todd Swortzel, president and CEO of Baptist Homes, confirms the living facility's estimated price tag is in the $100 million ballpark. Providence Point will have 216 independent living apartments and 36 freestanding, single-family homes. In addition to independent living, the community will have a continuum of health services, assisted living, skilled nursing and dementia care.
Broome County considers new site for nursing home
"If we don't have the (nursing home) beds, many of our loved ones would have to be sent out of Broome County, which would be hardship for many families." Legislature Chairman Mark R. Whalen, who represents part of the East Side, said Tuesday that as with all large county capital expenditures, he's skeptical of the project until he's convinced the county needs it and it's something people in his district want. When asked for a show of hands, none of the residents on Tuesday indicated they were opposed to a new nursing home on the East Side or on the former psychiatric center campus, just its proposed location in the bowl. Lifetime East Side resident Chris McAuliffe said he would be glad to see jobs return to the East Side once the proposed nursing home opened. "It will be a very positive thing to revive the East Side," said McAuliffe.
Mom in Love?
One of the questions I tackle in my new book, Leap! What Will We Do with the Rest of our Lives?, is: what happens to love and sex? Both, I've found, can grow more intense and expansive as long as we're healthy. My mom met the love of her life when she was 86. .
Sherwood Ross: New Fort Detrick "Biodefense" Lab.
Although no foreign power has threatened a bioterror attack against America, since 9/11 the Bush administration has allocated a stunning $43-billion to "defend" against one. Critics are now saying, however, Bush's newest "biodefense" initiative is both offensive and illegal. The latest development, according to the Associated Press, is that the U.S. Army is replacing its Military Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., "with a new laboratory that would be a component of a biodefense campus operated by several agencies." The Army told AP the laboratory is intended to continue research that is only meant for defense against biological threats. But University of Illinois international law professor Francis Boyle charged the Fort Detrick work will include "acquiring, growing, modifying, storing, packaging and dispersing classical, emerging and genetically engineered pathogens." Those activities, as well as planned study of the properties of pathogens when weaponized, "are unmistakable hallmarks of an offensive weapons program." Boyle made his comments to Fort Detrick as part of its environmental impact assessment of the new facility.
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