The Utica Center for Development celebrated the grand opening of a new veterans resource center in the Oneonta Armory on Tuesday, March 11, with Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado in attendance to introduce the program locally and recognize the efforts of those supporting veterans.
About 120 people attended, including local veterans, city and state police personnel, city staff and Common Council members.
Delgado, who attended the event ahead of delivering the annual Leslie G. Rude Memorial Lecture at Hartwick College, said that it was a good sign that many in the community turned out for the event.
“It’s also good because that means our veteran community will feel like it’s supported,” he said. “I like what I’m seeing right here. I like that there’s new centers that are being opened up, (that) there’s more access points for our veterans, that we’re seeing regional cooperation, and that type of cooperation is important because there’s power in numbers.”
UDC, founded in 208, serves veterans in 12 upstate counties, helping with access housing assistance, VA health benefits, legal aid, food, transportation and other services.
Vincent Scalise, UDC executive director, said the group intends to invest “quite a few million” dollars into renovating the Armory to eventually include 12 units of housing for vets on the upper floors, but still maintain the building as a community space.
“We did the same thing in Utica,” he said. “I took over an old YMCA. We have 18 units of housing. We have our offices, our support offices. We also have the gymnasium open to the public.”
UDC recently leased a 630-square-foot first floor office to house its veterans services, including suicide prevention and homelessness outreach, with two full-time staff members, perhaps adding a third in late spring.
Programs include the PFC Dwyer Veteran Peer to Peer Program for Otsego County, which provides non-clinical support such as one-on-one sessions, weekly groups, social activities and referrals to foster connection and mutual support among local veterans and the Supportive Services for Veterans and Families to help combat veteran homelessness, whether veterans are facing eviction, in shelters or on the street.
Oneonta Veterans Resource Center Chief Administrator Gary Flaherty, a retired Army Command sergeant major, spent more than a decade working for veterans services in Columbia County and moved to Oneonta last summer.
He said that veterans in Oneonta have already been coming in for assistance. The city, which has owned the Armory since 2003, recently installed a new wheelchair ramp along the front of the building.
Otsego County Veteran Services Officer Jamie Carkees and county Department of Veterans Affairs Director Phil Couse visited the space and toured the office Tuesday.
“It’s going be a great outreach for our veterans,” Carkees said. “It’s going to be something that we can use and be beneficial to help them. It’s a wonderful place.”
Couse, who has been the county veterans department director for four years, said that all of the various veterans groups share the same idea to help veterans anywhere they can.
“It’s great to have a nonprofit with Vince (Scalise) coming in,” he said, “and it should serve our veterans so much more than than what we can do at the county level.”
The Armory was constructed in 1905 and became home to Oneonta’s Company G, the first regiment of the New York State National Guard. The Armory was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995, and the city acquired the Armory in 2003. It was designated as the Asa C. Allison Jr. Municipal Building last year.
Oneonta Mayor Mark Drnek said the Armory is at a “moment of transformation, where the spirit of the many soldiers who called this building theirs is honored in the best possible way, with an urgent commitment to the care and support of our local veterans.”
“For generations … it’s been the meeting place for community organizations, and in times of trouble, it’s been the sanctuary and a refuge and a place to find support,” Drnek said. “The Armory has had an impactful 100-plus years, but its future will be nothing less than transformative.”