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Last month six state representatives (constituting a self-proclaimed “Task Force”) convened the first of a promised series of public hearings on the status of the all but abandoned, former Veterans Administration hospital complex in Allen Park.

By way if background…

In 1937 Henry and Clara Ford in a show of patriotic generosity donated 38 acres of property at the north end of Allen Park as a site for a veterans health care facility. The transfer of title did, however, contain what is called a “reverter clause.” That is, the gift included the condition that, should the property no longer be used for the designated purpose, it would revert to the Fords (or their heirs).

So, a huge veterans hospital was built on the property. It opened in 1939 and operated for more than half a century, eventually expanding into a complex of 22 buildings sprawling over most of the farm-sized parcel of land.

Finally, in June of 1996 the facility, deemed outdated and impractical to renovate, was shut down and area veterans’ health care services — with the exception of a two-days-per-week walk-in clinic that continued to operate in a small annex of one of the buildings — were transferred to a brand new facility near downtown Detroit.

And so the status quoed until one Allen Park resident/taxpayer (a libertarian troublemaker who shall go nameless) began asking some pointed questions at city council meetings about the future of the now deserted, ten-story double building, its score of attendant structures, and the substantial real estate the whole phalanx commanded.

Soon other Allen Parkers began asking similar questions, the local newspaper began reporting these concerns, and the wherewithal was mustered in local officialdom to politely but formally inquire of the federal powers-that-be as to their plans for the property.

Like a high school girl who loses interest in some guy but, nevertheless, endeavors to make certain none of the other girls will date him either, John Dingell (D-Dearborn), the congressman for whom the downtown replacement facility was named, owing to his repute as champion of veterans’ issues, set about the task of finding some pretext upon which to retain federal control over the almost entirely idle property.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned gaggle of politicians from Lansing, sensing a photo-op, set up their Task Force to look into the matter — blissfully oblivious of fact that they had no jurisdiction whatever over a federal facility in a local community.

The first hearing brought out a hundred or more veterans festooned in traditional regalia, a relative handful of local residents, a congressional aide, a couple of Ford lawyers (representing the company, not the family, for some reason that was never made clear) and one Charles Lott, Director of the new John D. Dingell Veteran’s Health Care Center in Detroit who, apparently, also had primary responsibility for the abandoned site it replaced.

Director Lott explained that he and his staff were working on a five year plan (shades of the old Soviet Union) to clear some — or all, he wasn’t sure — of the Allen Park property retaining, perhaps, seven acres for the remaining walk-in clinic. Or not. The order and timing of demolition were also undetermined. A master of bureaucratic vagueries, Director Lott felt under no particular pressure to be more precise in as much as the five year plan would not even commence for another year and a half.

Testimony by various folks regarding operations of the clinic were consistent on one point: a single doctor and pair of nurses saw an average of twenty patients on each of the two days per week that it is open, an annual total of about 2000 appointments. This, according to ‘typical usage’ figures offered by Director Lott, would suggest that the clinic provides services to about 400 veterans.

Most of the veterans at the hearing objected to having to be served at the new facility, complaining about the distance, parking problems, the lack of “green space” (i.e., lawns) and similar concerns — all of which must surely have been raised when the location for the new facility was first proposed.

Finally, the malcontent who started this whole wrecking ball swinging got up and agreed with one of the representatives, Eileen DeHart (D-Westland), that the generosity of the Ford family in having provided the property should certainly be recognized, but wondered why the sacrifice by Allen Park residents of 38 acres of property tax base for the last six decades was not being similarly noted.

This observation was met with a sour glower from the entire panel.

Further, while he appreciated a proposal that would return at least 31 acres to productive purpose, he couldn’t help but wonder why seven acres should be necessary to the maintenance of so limited a service as a two-days-per-week walk-in clinic.

“I think our veterans,” snapped the representative, “are worth seven acres!” and used the applause line to full effect.

“Indeed,” our benighted citizen rejoined once the approbation died down, “they are surely worth all 38 acres. But that is hardly the point. The question is: What is reasonably needed to provide the services? I would think that a couple thousand square feet of rented office space would be more than adequate,” he observed to the now quiet room.

“And perhaps,” he added, “we might locate the facility in Lincoln Park for awhile.”

The implications of this last did not sit well with Rep. Gloria Schermesser (D-Lincoln Park), the politician who organized and chaired the show — as she hails from that very city.

“Well,” she sputtered indignantly, “I’d be proud to have a veterans clinic in Lincoln Park!”

And, indeed, why should we Allen Park be permitted to hog all the glory?  Let some other community have the honor of passing up several hundred thousand dollars a year in property tax revenue for the next few decades.  Besides, what’s a mere seven acres out of our neighboring, bedroom community of Lincoln Park?

In the meantime an empty and decaying colossus stands astride the northern entrance to Allen Park, mute testimony to governmental inertia and political intransigence. And there it will continue to brood — along with local property taxpayers — apparently, for the better part of the next decade. Or until it collapses like its Grecian forerunner.

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More on “acting locally”:

• Down the sewer
• Downtown Disaster Areas
• The court of public policy
• Civics lessons
• Going around politicians to help the sick
  
• Keep your government even closer
• Buying and selling the 2nd Amendment