Regarding “VA mum on new health care site” (July 13, page 1).

I am not against the construction of a new hospital, but I strongly disagree with the choice of location. I find the delay, silence and apparent secrecy surrounding the project disturbing. It makes we wonder if the hospital will even be built at all, despite the Veterans Affairs’s claims to the contrary.

The fact that there are, besides Deshon Woods, three other properties in three townships under consideration as the location makes me quite upset. To think they destroyed Deshon Woods, that beautiful, 20-acre, old-growth forest that was a public park, only to potentially not even build there is disgusting. If the original intention was to build it there, it should be built there. That’s the least they can do now that they have turned that beautiful forest into a desert.

This project was stopped because the CEO of the developer the VA hired is in prison for corruption. Doesn’t the VA check out its contractors before hiring them? Apparently, someone at the VA was asleep at the wheel, and now that forest, and the residents and taxpayers of Butler Township, have had to pay for it.

All I can say is that, after everything they have done, they better build that hospital there. They can’t bring the forest back, so that’s the least they can do now, rather than letting it sit there desolate.