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Purple Heart Hall Plans On Fast Track, State Says - 13 January, 2005
By Michael Randall
Times Herald-Record
mrandall@th-record.com
New Windsor – So far it's been a rocky road to getting the Purple Heart Hall of Honor built.
But now, after 10 years of plans, revisions, hopeful announcements, indefinite delays, debates over its location, and rising and falling cost estimates, the state says construction will begin this spring.
Ads seeking bids on three major parts of the hall's construction were published this week. Bids are due Feb. 2.
Of course, it has gotten this close before. The state received bids a few years ago, only to put the project on hold in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and a subsequent state fiscal crisis.
Still, this is the most confident folks in Albany have been in years that things really are going to happen.
"It's moving along at a very encouraging pace," said Jackie Fiore, a spokeswoman for state Sen. Bill Larkin.
The hall will be built at the Cantonment, the state historic site on Temple Hill Road where George Washington's army made its final camp.
The museum will feature filmed recollections from Purple Heart recipients, a computer log of all recipients of the medal, period memorabilia, historic photographs, and documentary films.
Cost estimates have ranged from $3.25 million to more than $8 million, with the most recent figure being about $5.8 million. Federal and state funds and private donations from groups like the Military Order of the Purple Heart veterans group so far total $3.8 million, of which about $1 million already has been spent for engineering and other preliminary costs.
State engineers estimate that the cost of the work for which bids are now being sought will be between $1.95 million and $2.65 million.
Everett Smith, publisher of The Sentinel, who first championed the idea of the hall after a reader suggested it, thinks 10 years is "long enough" to plan a project like this and is eager to see shovels in the ground.
"My concern is that a lot of people who are going to be [honored] in there are dying off by the thousands every year, veterans of World War II and Korea," Smith said.
That's also been the concern of Purple Heart recipient Warren Craig, an 80-year-old World War II Navy veteran from the Town of Newburgh, who's been urging the state for years to build something – even if it means building part of the museum now and part later, when more funds are available.
"I'm glad to hear something is happening," Craig said. "We certainly need it. We're creating more new Purple Heart recipients every day in Iraq."
Still, Craig remained skeptical: "I'll believe it when I see it."
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