Letter to Cowra Councillors ; MRI Facility
I just sent this:
Councillors,
You may be aware that I have been actively looking for support to preserve The Old Cowra Hospital (TOCH) and to re-use its major buildings for Community Medical facilities:
I ask for a formal Council resolution to support me in gaining Interim Heritage Orders - which will protect TOCH - which I believe is of significant heritage and other value and is under immediate threat of demolition until a thorough study of its heritage value can be carried out.
I believe there are many useful community health projects that could make use of the buildings and floor space of TOCH but my own #1 project is for the creation of a BioMedical Research (Brain Scanning) Facility for my non-profit organisation:
The Neural Archives Foundation (NAF)
The minimum cost of a building construction across the road from TOCH on my own property for the facility is about $3m and the cost of a 7 Tesla MRI machine is about $10m, so saving the cost of the construction of the building is a not-insignificant amount. I intend for the cost of the MRI machine to be covered by donations (in kind and otherwise) to the NAF from progressive tech companies such as:
The value of having an MRI machine and BioMedical Research facility in Cowra should NOT be underestimated! - there are MANY valuable spin-off effects for the local community and it is not just limited to the value of having a National-level research facility which creates significant local education and professional possibilities. Of course, having a local MRI research facility would also allow for routine medical MRIs to be performed locally instead of people needing to travel to Orange or Bathurst or even further away.
Sincerely,
Phil.