Tools

No word yet on layoff notices at Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center

By GARY LIBERATORE

Story Created: Jul 2, 2012 at 5:34 PM EDT

Story Updated: Jul 2, 2012 at 5:34 PM EDT

UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - We knew people were going to be losing their jobs at the Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center due to consolidation, we just didn't know when.

Monday morning, NEWSChannel 2 received some calls into the newsroom from people saying they were workers at the MVPC and that they received an email earlier in the day stating layoff notices would be handed out later that day.

The workers didn't leave their names, and when we tried to speak to workers as they entered and left the facility on Noyes Street in Utica, no one was willing to talk.

Also, no one from the New York State Office of Mental Health returned our calls regarding the layoffs.

Two in-patient wards at MVPC are set to close in just about seven weeks from now, on August 23.

Those wards are moving to the Hutchings Psychiatric Center in Syracuse.

We talked to Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi of Utica Monday afternoon, and he says he has heard nothing about layoff notices, but he says he does know that representatives from the State Office of Mental Health from Albany are now in Utica meeting individually with workers.

Brindisi says they are talking with the workers about positions at other facilities around the state.

Brindisi adds that he and Senator Joe Griffo of Rome, were able to get the State Commissioner of Mental Health to reduce the number of positions expected to be lost at MVPC from 139, all the way down to just 20.

So the good news, 119 of the 139 jobs originally set to be eliminated here will be saved. The bad news, those 119 people will most likely move out of the area to keep their job with the state.

What's On