Having recently opened a mothers’ rest home they built with a succession of grants totaling $10.5 million, Kiryas Joel officials are now seeking another $2.25 million for the building, this time through the federal stimulus package.
The grant request for the 55-bed center, known as Aishes Chayil D’Kiryas Joel, was included on a list of thousands of projects submitted to the state to claim a piece of the $787 billion package enacted in February.
There is no guarantee Kiryas Joel’s project is even eligible for funding through one of the stimulus programs. The list on which it appears is merely an unedited collection of requests the state has fielded.
A short description provided to the state indicates that Kiryas Joel wants to add 18 beds to Aishes Chayil, a three-story center where Orthodox Jewish mothers pay up to $185 a night to recuperate with their newborns before returning to their homes.
The proposal also calls for construction of a nursery and a “medical arts area.” The 50,000-square-foot building already has a nursery, but the village has yet to build the doctors’ offices that were in their plans from the outset.
Village Administrator Gedalye Szegedin, who is also the executive director of Aishes Chayil, didn’t return a call for comment.
Village officials estimated the project would cost $3.5 million when they began seeking grants in 2001. But the expense gradually ballooned to $11.4 million as the village secured one grant after another from allies in Albany and Washington to pay for the work.
Then-Gov. George Pataki and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver were the project’s chief benefactors.
(Source: Times Herald Record)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
4 Responses
R’ Elchonon Wasserman makes a claim that “lomoh tisrou” is the cause of sinas yisroel, if you look at the commentary on the news source this is not being well received by the locals.
I don’t think it is being well received by anybody who lost his job, or is suffering economically, etc.
They are looking to charge $185 a night to new mothers – in other words, this is a commercial enterprise, a glorified hotel. If it was a tzedaka then I would understand…but why is this venture getting any tax dollars at all?
If we are spending $13m in Kiryas Joel, I would much rather see it go to job creation or something else that would help the poorest city in the country lift themselves out of poverty.
As a member of the frum community, whose husband lost his job. I am one of hundereds whose husband lost their job, and I don’t even know how wwe’re going to manage for Pesach. How can anyone even go out and spend all this money on such luxuries today, especially drain th Bikur Cholim’s when these people in Monroe are raking it in???????
Why isn’t a wonderful place like Sea Gate Kimpeturin hme good enough????????????????