N.Y. Secretary of State to Tour Cancer Screening Center in Cobleskill Monday

COBLESKILL, NY (07/23/2010)(readMedia)-- Secretary of State Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez will join Appalachian Regional Commission officials in Cobleskill Monday to tour a mobile cancer screening van that provides hundreds of critical examinations each year in the rural Western Catskills and Mohawk Valley regions.

Bassett Heathcare received $150,000 in federal ARC funds to replace its outdated screening center and related equipment, as well as nearly $1 million in private investments. As a result, Bassett is now able to provide an additional 120 mammograms, 100 pelvic exams with Pap smears, 200 prostate cancer screenings, 200 skin cancer screenings and 200 colorectal cancer screenings annually in the rural parts of Otsego, Schoharie and Delaware Counties.

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The Department of State is responsible for management of the state's Appalachian Regional Commission program, which provides financing assistance to local governments with infrastructure needs, as well as economic and community development assistance. The ARC is a federal-state partnership that works across 13 states in Appalachia, including New York. The beneficiaries of these programs include a large portion of the municipalities in the Southern Tier, several industrial development agencies and thousands of students and job skills training candidates.