Utah Sees Quicker Payback for Veterans Nursing Home
Stimulus could return state's $12.5 million within two years
By CHARLES F. TRENTELMAN
Standard-Examiner staff
ctrentelman@standard.net
OGDEN -- Thanks to government stimulus funds, Utah could get the $12.5 million back that it put up for a veterans nursing home sooner than it thought, state veterans officials said Tuesday.
Dennis McFall, deputy director of the Utah Office of Veterans Affairs, said he has been told by Veterans Administration officials in Washington, D.C., that the money, $12.5 million, is in either the 2009 or 2010 fiscal-year budget.
Either way, that's a lot earlier than the seven-year wait Utah officials were originally told to expect.
Last year, Utah approved $20 million for the full cost of building a 120-bed veterans nursing home in Weber County. Normally, such homes are built when a state puts up 35 percent of the cost.
Utah's veterans mounted a multiyear campaign, based on huge state budget surpluses, to get Utah to pay the full cost of the home. Utah currently has only one 80-bed home for veterans, in Salt Lake City, and it has a two-year waiting period.
Because the Legislature put up all the funds, the home is being built and should be completed by Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
McFall said Veterans Administration officials told him that $150 million in federal stimulus funds were put into the VA's nursing home construction program.
"With that $150 million, it came down the waiting list far enough to catch us," he said.
Utah will still have to wait a bit to get its money back.
"What will happen, as construction proceeds, we will be billed and pay the contractors, and then I submit those invoices back to Washington, D.C., and they pay us on a construction-completed basis," he said. "They're not just going to send us a check."
Terry Schow, executive director of the Utah Department of Veterans Affairs, said he hopes this funding will make it possible to find state funds for other nursing homes he wants to build in St. George and Utah County.
When the veterans and legislators were discussing the Weber County home, he said, "there was discussion about possibly using it (the returned federal funds) for the state share" for the other two homes, "but that would have to be approved and finalized by them."
However, the state's financial condition now is vastly different from 18 months ago, so there's no guarantee what the returned $12.5 million will be used for, McFall said.
Officials are still trying to raise funds to furnish the 120 rooms of the veterans nursing home in Weber County.
Dennis McFall said Tuesday that changes in the plans made the originally budgeted amount for room furnishings inadequate.
"There's an amount in the budget for furnishing the rooms, but it's furnishing them at a pretty austere level," he said.
The changes made the home four pods of rooms instead of one large unit, with more private rooms and kitchen facilities.
Fundraising efforts have brought in about $15,000, he said. He'd like to see between $100,000 and $150,000.
At Monday's meeting of the Weber Area Council of Governments, Weber Commission Chairman Craig Dearden said the nursing home would be one of two recipients of the money raised by the county's annual golf tournament.
He said the commissioners are also working on getting a day at the Weber County Fair dedicated to raising funds for the nursing home.
Donations can be sent to: Weber Nursing Home Fund, Utah Department of Veterans Affairs, 550 Foothill Drive, No. 202, Salt Lake City, UT 84157.
Make checks out to Northern Utah Veterans Home.
