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Columbia Memorial pulls out of plans for medical center in Catskill
Andrea Macko reports for Porcupine Soup that Columbia Memorial Health is pulling out of its plan to bring a medical center to Catskill. Columbia Memorial in 2020 announced they would build a new medical center near Thruway Exit 21 where the Greene County IDA is trying to set up new businesses. “The Columbia Memorial Hospital option has expired and we are moving away from the idea of a medical facility there,” Greene County Industrial Development Agency Executive Director April Ernst told county legislators this week. But hospital officials have visited a 14-acre site in the Kalkberg Commerce Park along the border of New Baltimore and Coxsackie on State Route 9W. “We are still in talks,” Ernst said. “We are trying to keep them interested in doing some sort of medical facility still within the county.” This week Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a $5 million grant for Columbia Memorial to construct a Greene County health center. According to the governor’s office, the funding would be for a 40,000 square foot facility “to provide essential ambulatory surgery, cancer treatment, and specialty physician care to Greene, Columbia, and northern Ulster counties.” Columbia Memorial's hospital is in Hudson. Read more about this story in Porcupine Soup.