More fed money coming Canandaigua VA's way

• More than $60 million federal money will fund the construction of two new cottages that will provide housing for 24 veterans.
• The funding is the next phase of a massive modernization and upgrade of the Canandaigua VA Medical Center.

CANANDAIGUA — More than $60 million in federal funding is coming to the Canandaigua Veterans Affairs Medical Campus for veterans housing and further upgrades to the facility, U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer announced Wednesday. 

Schumer also announced his push to secure the remaining final $62.5 million needed to complete the massive $506 million major modernization and upgrade of the Canandaigua VA Medical Campus in the fiscal year 2023 VA Appropriations bill that Congress is expected to take up later this year. 

Schumer said this major construction project to upgrade the Canandaigua VA will provide Rochester-area veterans with the new state-of-art medical facilities and housing they have long deserved.  

“Nearly two decades ago the feds wanted to close the Canandaigua VA, ripping away this vital care rather than investing in it for the future,” Schumer said in a prepared statement. “I stood shoulder to shoulder with our Rochester Finger Lakes-area veterans to get the Canandaigua VA Medical Center off the chopping block and promised I would deliver the funds to modernize the campus to provide state-of-the-art care our veterans deserved.” 

The $60 million in funding will go to the next Phase 4 scope of work that includes the construction of two new housing cottages, each of which has 12 private bedrooms and together will provide housing for 24 additional veterans. These cottages are in addition to the eight other cottage units and community building now under construction that will provide housing and services for 96 veterans.   

In addition, this funding will also complete renovations to Buildings 4 and 5 and finish vital heating and air-conditioning upgrades to Building 5. 

Schumer said the remainder of the funding he is seeking will go toward the final upgrades, including the remaining renovations to Buildings 1, 3, 4, 5 and 9 on the Fort Hill Avenue campus, which was built in the 1930s.

Since first launching his push to save the VA center, Schumer said he has delivered over $443 million in funding so far for the overall $506 million upgrade project that began construction in 2018. 

Jim Wideman, chairman of the Finger Lakes Veterans Advocacy Council, said in a prepared statement that the organization has long-supported the modernization and expansion of the Canandaigua VA Medical Campus to ensure that veterans are receiving the highest quality of care. 

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs formally revealed a plan to close the Canandaigua VA Medical Center in 2003, prompting an outcry and efforts to save the center, including by Canandaigua citizen and veteran Ralph Calabrese, who died last year, and others in the community as well as government and elected officials such as Schumer. 

Not only were those efforts successful, in 2007 the VA announced its plan to upgrade the facility.