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Show Veterans Administration Would Scrap This $14,000,000 Utah Institution The taxpayers of the United States and the Service Men who made such heroic sacrifices for their country in World War II got full value for the $1 1,000,000 expended in the building nl' this magnificent army general hospital. No "boondoggle," it was built, and built well, to fill a real need. People of Utah claim the need si.il! BRIGHAM CITY, UTAH (Special )-All )-All Utah is joining the light with the people of Brigham City and the northern part of the statu to retain Bushnell General hospital in operation opera-tion for the benefit of our nation's war veterans. There is desperate need for this hospital. For three and one-half years the hospital has proven its capacity and anility to serve the 9ick and wounded. Its surroundings are ideal for raft, recovery re-covery and peace of mind. And its operation throughout the war has been a model of efficiency and effectiveness. effec-tiveness. Announcement has been made that the army plnns to relinquish use of the hospital, declaring it surplus, June 30 of this year. There is a possibility that the army rrmy continue to operate the hospital for a time longer, perhaps leasing a number of beds to the Veterans' Administration for use of its patients. pa-tients. After the army relinquishes Bushnell, Bush-nell, the Veterans' Administration has indicated it will take over and operate the hospital for a time. But this arrangement, so far as the Veterans' Vet-erans' Administration has indicated, will be only temporary. The Veterans' Vet-erans' Administration program is to build new hospitals as quickly as possible. Simultaneous with the announcement announce-ment that Bushnell is to be closed came an announcement that the Veterans' Administration is planning to build a new 500-bed psychiatric hospital in Salt Lake City, only GO miles from Brigham City. The plan to abandon one hurhly efficient and satisfactory establishment establish-ment to build and occupy another, at a cost of $5,000,000 or more, is This beautiful $137,000 swimming pool at Bushnell General hospital (ills u double need the year around. Patients learning anew to use injured or prosthetic limbs, find swimming a pleasant and speedy shortcut. And in addition, the fine, big pool is a favorite recreation center for from 2,000 to 3,000 patients at all times. seen us needless waste of taxpayers' money by Brigham City and Northern North-ern Utah residents und organizations. organiza-tions. They point out that even now the Veterans' Administration is thousands of hospital beds short of its needs in curing for ex-service men, and that the need will increase steudily as the years go by. Strong representations have been made to the Utah congressmen and senators to prevent the closing of Bushnell, and the attendant depriving depriv-ing of Utah and Inter-Mountain ex-service ex-service men of the facilities it would afford through the years. Built of permanent brick construction construc-tion as a permanent institution, Bushnell General hospital would save the nation's taxpayers money if it were to be continued per-manen per-manen tly in operation. With minor changes, experts agree, it would be as permanently efficient and satisfactory satis-factory as any hospital which could be built today, and in many respects more so. And there is still the matter of the shortage of hospitalization facilities facili-ties for veterans. And the fourteen million well-spent taxpayers' dollars which, Northern Utahns feel, should not be "thrown out the window." |
