Grant aimed at keeping doctors in NNY

The Northern New York Community Foundation made a big commitment Tuesday to help solve, or at least decrease, the region's shortage of physicians and other health-care professionals.

The foundation's board awarded a $150,000 grant to the Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization and a $20,000 grant to the Center for Governmental Research for a report on recruitment and retention of physicians.

The three-year grant to the Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization serves as a match to the $150,000 Jefferson County committed to the organization's project of building a work force of north country natives returning to the region to work as health-care professionals.

The organization is heading up an effort to connect with local people doing internships or residencies elsewhere, as well as high school students interested in medicine, and offer them long-term incentives to work at a facility within a 40-mile radius of Fort Drum.

The three-year project aims to bring just under 200 people into contact with local facilities in hopes of filling the gap of health-care professionals in north country communities.

Denise K. Young, the organization's director, said short-term incentives make the retention of those people difficult after the incentives have expired. The organization's plan is to persuade those people to stay in the region.

"We do a lot for short term, like loan repayment and sign-on bonuses, but once their time commitment is met, retaining is very difficult," she said. "We're working on long-term strategies. We also need to be more long-term in our strategic planning."

Mrs. Young described the Northern New York Community Foundation's grant award as "one step closer" to making its efforts possible.

Foundation Executive Director Alex C. Velto said as the north country and other rural areas across the nation face a shortage of health professionals, the unusual opportunity the Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization is presenting is something the foundation wanted to be a part of.

"Our board feels that this is important," he said after Tuesday's board meeting.

Mr. Velto said the board also is considering offering more scholarships within its scholarship program for students entering or working on a health-related career. He said one option is to award scholarships to people who promise they will stay in the area. If not, the person would have to repay the scholarship.

No immediate changes are planned in the scholarship program, he said.

Other grants the foundation's board awarded Tuesday include:

■ $6,000 to the Tri-Region Science and Engineering Fair in Syracuse for inclusion of students from St. Lawrence, Jefferson and Lewis counties.

■ $15,000 to the Watertown Teen Center for summer programming.

■ $1,000 to Augustinian Academy in Carthage for its proposed school playground.

■ $2,000 to the Cape Vincent Arts Council for the Thousand Islands International Piano Competition.

■ $5,000 to the Thompson Park Conservancy for the zoo's Fragile Wilderness event.

■ $3,500 to the Oriskany Alliance for performances in Lowville and Watertown of the opera "Molly of the Mohawks."

■ $4,250 to First Presbyterian Church, Watertown, for a documentary film of a house-building trip to Mexico

■ $1,500 to Samaritan Medical Center for a nurse to attend the national meeting of the Holistic Nurses Association.