The Allen Park Veterans Clinic

Last month six state reps (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.

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 Finally, in June 1996, the facility, deemed outdated and impractical to renovate, was shut down and area veterans' health care services -- with the exception of a two-days-per-week walk-in clinic which continued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

And so the status quoed until one Allen Park resident/taxpayer (a Libertarian 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 supposed status as champion of veterans' issues), immediately set about the task of finding some pretext upon which to retain federal control over the almost entirely idle and now decaying property.

Meanwhile, a gaggle of politicians from Lansing, sensing a photo-op, set up their Task Force committee and staged the present hearings to look into the matter -- despite the obvious 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 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 so as to keep open 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: the one doctor and two 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, who visit such facilities an average of five times per year.

Most of the veterans at the hearing complained about parking problems, the lack of "green space" (i.e., lawns) and the inconvenience of the new, downtown facility -- all of which objections must surely have been raised when the location for the new facility was first proposed. Finally, the troublemaking resident 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 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, "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 we might locate the facility in Lincoln Park for awhile," he added.

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

"Well," she sputtered, "I'd be proud to have a veterans clinic in Lincoln Park!"

And, indeed, why should 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 a wealthy city like 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.

Tim O'Brien is the Executive Director of the Libertarian Party of Michigan.