Medical Facility Opens on Burnside Avenue

Verona Greenland (in red), MHHC's president and CEO, cuts to ribbon on the new building (Photo courtesy of MHHC)

Editor's note: This article appeared in the latest issue of the Mount Hope Monitor.

By JAMES FERGUSSON 

On Dec. 1, Morris Heights Health Center held a grand opening ceremony for its new 31,000-square-foot medical facility on West Burnside Avenue. The building, called Harrison Circle, will offer primary care services, behavioral health services, cardiology, mammography, digital x-ray, podiatry, and other types of care.

“We knew we had to expand our services in order to accommodate the increasing need for health care services within our community,” said Verona Greenland, Morris Heights’ president and CEO.
Harrison Circle is also home to 70 affordable apartments for seniors.

Attendees included Dr. Steven M. Safyer, the president and CEO of Montefiore Medical Center, and Adolfo Carrion, the former Bronx borough president who currently works for the Department of Housing Preservation and Urban Development (HUD), which helped fund the project. Also present was Fritz Jean, Mount Hope Housing Company’s president and CEO. Mount Hope partnered with Morris Heights on the senior housing.

The facility is on West Burnside Avenue and Harrison Avenue (Photo: J. Fergusson)

Bronx News Roundup July 7

The owner of Stella D’oro, the cookie factory in Kingsbridge, will close the plant permanently in October, after deciding it's no longer profitable. The decision comes just days after a judge ordered the company to rehire 130 striking workers, and pay them a couple of months of lost wages.

Police are hunting a man who sexually assaulted a teenage girl in Fordham last Friday.

This fall, the city plans to open a "Family Justice Center" in Concourse Village to help domestic violence victims rebuild their lives. It'll be located in the same building as the DA's office.

Liz Benjamin has the latest on the bickering and finger-pointing in Albany.

State Senator Jose M. Serrano has an op-ed in the Gotham Gazette in support of arts education, which he fears will become "the next casualty of the Albany war."

A look at what Burnside Avenue's commercial strip has to offer. If community leaders get their way, a Business Improvement District (or BID) will be created on Burnside in the not too distant future.

Bank Robbery on Burnside

The Chase Bank on the corner of Burnside and Jerome Avenues was robbed this morning at approximately 10 a.m., witnesses say. Police are said to be looking for two men. A stretch of Jerome is still cordoned off; several cops (who aren't talking) are standing over a bundle of $20 bills that the men dropped as they made their escape. The stolen bank notes (see below) were booby-trapped with a packet of red dye. Presumably the cops are waiting for forensics to show up.