Page 630 - Demo

Cumberland ClosingStill Spurs ConcernTHE CUMBERLAND GAP: Dissatisfaction foments aroundCumberland Hospital%u2014many look disparagingly on thehospital%u2019s aging facilities; others protest its proposed1979 closing. (Michael Cuiccio Photo)BY GARY FREDERICKWhen 25 people stopped traffic at Flatbush and Myrtle Avenues in April to protest the planned closing of Cumberland Hospital, it looked like the start of something big.The protest escalated over the summer, led in part by Jerome Perdum, Sr., a resident of Raymond Ingersoll Houses and a member of Community Planning Board Two's Health Committee. One really in late July involved 200 people. A second drew 1,000 residents of Fort Greene in early August. According to Perdum, 34 organizations joined the second rally, along with politicians and other residents.Now, three months later, the concern has not died, but the action, the vocal outrage seems to be vanishing. %u201c There's less concern now ,\Stern, manager of Ingersoll Houses. %u2018%u2018You know how it is with people. They don%u2019t get excited until it hits home. Today everyone is well. If someone gets sick next week, they%u2019ll be out on the picket line, it has to hit home first.%u201d Cumberland Hospital is nestled among apartment complexes, mostly low income families. It is surrounded by Ingersoll Houses and Walt Whitman Houses comprising about 8,000 families. It is estimated Cumberland services close to 500,000 people.The city%u2019s Health and Hospitals Corporation plans to close it once the ultra-modem Woodhull facility opens in Williamsburgh. Although plans are not finalized, Woodhull may open as soon as July 1, 1979, and that could leave Fort Greene without a well-equipped, homebased municipal hospital.A HEARTBREAK%u2018%u2018A large community like this needs a large facility close at hand,%u201d said Perdum. %u201c Brooklyn Hospital is not large enough to handle the number of people.%u201d%u201c It would be a heartbreaking thing to lose Cumberland,%u201d said Naomi Willia, treasurer of Ingersoll Tenants Association. %u201c We%u2019rehoping a major something will come along and help us save Cumberland.%u201dThat %u201c major something%u201d seems to be lacking. The protests have died, but the fright at losing a major hospital which numbers125.000 emergency room visits and175.000 outpatient trips per year is real.One fear is that Woodhull may be opened as a private hospital, with daily rates too high for many local residents. Naomi Willis was taken on a tour of the darkened complex last spring. She was highly impressed with the sophistication and modern equipment.of the hospital. %u201c It has to be expensive,%u201d she said, not imagining it becoming anything other than a private hospital.%u201c Suppose you go to a doctor and you don't have the money,%u201d said Mary Tooley, president of Ingersoll Tenants Association. %u201c At least Cumberland will let you in. In this community we have all kinds: drug addicts, drunks. Cumberland lets them in. So how%u2019s it gonna be for these people?%u201dA LONG RIDEAnother fear deals with the great distance between Cumberland and Woodhull. It could take as long as 45 minutes for a Cumberland-area patient to get to Woodhull by ambulance or public transportation.%u201c If a child gets sick at one or two at night, and a mother has to go to Woodhull, it%u2019s a tremendous strain,%u201d said Perdum.Although Health and Hospitals Corporation has promised ambulance service once Cumberland closes, there are those who remain skeptical. %u201cI don%u2019t know how long they%u2019re gonna do that,%u201d said Stem. %u201c It (the promise) could be something to satisfy the community for a short time.%u201d%u201c It doesn%u2019t make much sense to leave an ambulance when they could leave a hospital,%u2019%u2019 said Tooley.But if these residents are afraid for their health safety, why hasn%u2019tthere been more demonstrations? A frequently cited reason is that Cumberland, in its present condition is no great shakes.Helen Jarvis, president of Walt Whitman Tenant%u2019s Association, said that Cumberland %u201c doctors are filthy, dirty, and don%u2019t know how to talk to people. The administration is wrong. The tenants want a rally, but they don%u2019t want to rally if Cumberland stays as it is.%u201dHer sentiments were echoed by Juanita Cherry, director of Ingersoll Willoughby Housing, Inc., a federally-funded organization which works with tenants. %u201cThe treatment as far as personnel goes is very rude,%u2019%u2019she said.A R E A L N E E DCherry said that on October 25 in the Cumberland emergency room, %u201c a lady was complaining%u2014she%u2019d fallen down the stairs. She walked in discomfort, something was wrong with her shoulder. There was a doctor sitting in the hall. He got up and asked why she was creaming. She said she fell down and hurt her shoulder. He screamed very loudly, %u2018Shut up, keep quiet and sit on the bench.'%u201d Cherry estimated the woman waited one hour before receiving any treatment.She also said, %u201c I don%u2019t think they feel it%u2019s going to happen. A lot of information may not have gotten to a lot of people who don%u2019t read newspapers or are members of any organizations.%u201dCherry said the need for the hospital is real, though, since Fort Greene has the highest infant mortality rate in the city. Health Department records support her claim, showing the death rate at 26.4 per every 1,000 births in 1977. The second highest rate in Brooklyn is Bedford with 23.4 deaths in every 1,000 births.Many Fort Greene residents are looking for the politicians to do something. \home from work, they just don%u2019t have much time to go to meetings,%u201d said Perdum. %u201cVery few can attend all the meetings...if wecan get more commitments from politicians, we can keep Cumberland open.%u201dNEW PLANS%u201c I%u2019d like to see the people do more,%u201d said Robert Santiago, executive assistant of the Cumberland Advisory Board. %u201cThey can write their Congressman, other elected officials, hopefully see more response from politicians after November 7. There%u2019s a tendency to feel in the Fort Greene area that the people don%u2019t vote, so they can do what they want.%u201dPerdum, Jarvis and others are planning another demonstration, but no date has been set. Jarvis would like the people to form a ringaround the hospital. Perdum said he hopes for a demonstration larger than the 1,000 who marched down Flatbush Avenue.But there is nothing definite, only the realization that these people need Cumberland. %u201c To close Cumberland, they would be playing with people%u2019s lives,%u201d said Jarvis. %u201c It%u2019s nothing but murder in the first degree.%u201d%u201c Any hospital has some good doctors and some bad doctors,%u201d said Tooley, %u201cbut Cumberland has really helped. Seventeen years ago Cumberland Hospital fought like mad to save my life...I%u2019d like to die in Cumberland.%u201dBoard 2 Business: Daytop Tensions SlackDaytop Village has set up a Community Advisory Board, apparently mending a long-running feud between the drug rehabilitation center and Community Board Two.Its creation was announced at the Board Meeting, November 8, held in the Brooklyn Union Gas Auditorium, 185 Montague Street.Lonni Gallen Cacchione, public affairs coordinator for Daytop, at 401 State St., told the board members that an advisory board was not established before because the board had not supplied them with a list of members of community organizations eligible for anadvisory board, and that Daytop was %u201c unfairly censored%u201d by Board Two. She said they were not invited to the September 13 Board Two meeting %u2018when Daytop had been severely criticized.Cacchione added that community board representation was welcome on the advisory board and as aKiosk Clashes Vex TenantsBY PETER HALEYEfforts to finish the nearly-completed and long-delayed Times Plaza kiosk renovation are now snagged by disagreements between the contractor, Eastern Storefront Construction Company, and the Downtown Brooklyn Development Association (DBDA) over contractual obligations.Meanwhile the kiosk%u2019s principal tenant, the Triangle Trolley restaurant, is considering witholding its rent if the principals in the construction, Easter Storefront and its developer, DBDA, don%u2019t finish the job soon.%u201c W p a r e i n t h p m i d d l e a n d w e are the ones who want to get this project together,%u201d said Pines, who characterized the development%u2019s progress so far as %u201cone mess after another.%u201d Pines said that he hadmoved into the kiosk in July because %u201cbank pressure on my commercial loan and mortgage left me with no alternative.%u201d Now he complained there is still sidewalk and soffit work to be done and also the replacement of poor materials. A %u201c soffit%u201d is the underside of a structure, such as a beam.Eastern Storefront is the third contractor in the history of the now two years plus old project, and according to DBDA%u2019s lawyer, Gordon Marsh, the contractor group is %u201c not performing.%u201d Marsh indicated that DBDA is %u201c examining%u201d contract specifications to consider n n ssih le litioatinn.Steven Lepp, architect for the job, said that both the contractor and DBDA were %u201cbasically getting it all wrapped up and completed%u201d and described the work thatremains to be done as %u201clittle finishing up spots.%u201dAmong the %u201c spots%u201d Lepp mentioned were soffit and sidewalk work and replacing some interior material that had been mistakenly used in the outside roofing. A spokesman for Eastern Storefront declined to comment on the project%u2019s delay but indicated that the completion of the job was under negotiation between Eastern, the architect and DBDA.Costs for the kiosk renovation, originally aimed at $85,000, ballooned to over $145,000 as cost overruns came and two previousoontrartnrc w m t A npwsstanrl anHTriangle Trolley are the onlytenants for the kiosk at Flatbush, Atlantic and Fourth Avenues.result Virginia Apuzzo and Howard Lewis, community board members,joined the other 14 organization members represented on Daytop%u2019s board.Later, Cacchione called this the last problem area with the board. %u201cWe have to somehow give the message,%u201d she said, %u201cthat these are people in the program you shouldn%u2019t be fearful of, and those in the street, you should be fearful of.%u201dAlso at the meeting, the board voted 27-0 to lobby for 312 designation of Fort Greene-Cobble Hill. This would allow for federal loans to be used in the rehabilitation of small buildings for residential use. A letter will be sent to Commissioner Nathan Leventhal of the Housing, Preservation and Development Department expressing the board%u2019s concern.Jane Williams, chairperson of the Health Committee, persuaded the board to vote 26-1 allocating $1,500 to publish a 100-page directory of health and social services. The directory will be distributed to 1,000 district organ1Z<&LIUI15.A Petty Cash Imprest Fund Account was also approved by a vote of 30-0. Authorized signatures of the account, expressly for checks under $100, will be ChairpersonGrantley Chichlow, District Manager Bob Bish, and board member Claudia Corwin. The account will be at Manufacturers Hanover at 177 Montague Street.Next month the board will vote on a resolution from Borough President Howard Golden authorizing the district manager to sign payroll checks. Although brought up for a vote last week, it was defeated after failure to attain 26 affirmative votes. Board members wanted more time to read the fivepart resolution since copies were not handed out before the meeting.Vivian Patterson was absent from the meeting because she and Bish were consulting with city agency heads to determine final budget figures for the district. These final figures will be submitted to the board at their next meeting.Thirteen members were not present at last week%u2019s meeting. Absent with excuse were Jane McConnell, Luis Castro, Rev. Brian Callahan, and James Pressy. Absent without excuse were Virginia Apuzzo, Victor Browne, David%u2019L l,, a r> %u2014 W %u2022 %u2022 AJWivu, i\\v %u00bb . If UHVlKeiller, Nathan Levine, Antonia Magano, and Jerome Perdum, Sr. The board has 49 members.%u2014G.F.Page 6, THE PHOENIX, November 16,1978