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"Final push" on for cardio center
Bonesville.net staff report
© Bonesville.net
Purple Alert, East Carolina
University's initiative to facilitate advocacy on behalf of the school's
strategic plans and visions, is urging its 1,200-plus members to express
their opinions to legislators as the General Assembly prepares to decide the
fate of the school's proposed Cardiovascular Diseases Institute.
House and Senate conferees are
expected to deliberate differences in separate bills passed by the chambers
that would provide $60 million to help fund the long-planned ECU heart and
stroke center. The school has identified an additional $150 million in
funding from private sources for an associated 120-150 bed heart hospital.
The Senate bill also
stipulates $180 million to underwrite a major overhaul and expansion of the
cancer center at UNC-Chapel Hill.
The House version of the
legislation would appropriate money for the ECU and UNC-CH projects and toss
in almost $100 million in appropriations for health-related facilities at
UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Asheville and Elizabeth City State University.
A related issue the
House-Senate conference members are likely to tangle over is whether monies
for the projects would come from the state's general operating revenues or
from less conventional sources.
East Carolina officials
involved in the planning for the Cardiovascular Diseases Institute envision
the undertaking as a strategic endeavor to help fight a range of
cardiovascular maladies that afflict North Carolinians at disproportionately
high rates.
Down East business and
political leaders also see the facility, which would employ hundreds, as an
catalyst for boosting the fortunes of the economically-challenged region.
An action notice on the front
page of Purple Alert's website (www.purplealert.ecu.edu)
indicates that the advocacy group's organizers believe a "final push" of
phone calls, e-mail messages and visits to legislators by cardio center
partisans might be decisive as the General Assembly approves a budget and
heads towards adjournment.
For more information, the
Purple Alert website encourages interested parties to call its 'Hotline' at
252-328-9300. To play the audio clip of the alert to heart center supporters
from Mike Lewis, ECU's Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences,
click here.
View other Bonesville.net stories about
Purple Alert.
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Bonesville.net. All rights reserved. This material may not be
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02/23/2007 11:47:55 AM
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