The sitework is almost done and soon workers will start putting up the long-awaited Ardie R. Copas State Veterans’ Nursing Home.
The Florida Department of Veteran Affairs gave the Florida Veterans Council an update about the home last Thursday.
“Today is the six-month anniversary of our groundbreaking ceremony in Port St. Lucie,” said Steve Murray, communications director at the state veterans department, in a phone interview after the meeting. “We’ve noted it on social media. It’s a milestone.”
On Tuesday, March 20, Gov. Rick Scott and others gathered at the western end of Tradition Parkway to ceremonially break ground for the 120-bed facility. Site work didn’t start right away. On June 18 workers started the needed groundwork.
“They are about 90 percent complete in leveling the property and putting in the fill dirt,” Murray said in the phone interview.
Murray said cooperative weather has construction off to a fast start.
“The weather has held up, thank goodness,” he said. “We’ve been watching the hurricane season. It wouldn’t be Florida without your afternoon thunderstorm. Nothing of note.”
He said laying the foundation for the 121,000-square-foot facility and putting concrete blocks on top of each other is close. “That’ll take place very shortly,” Murray said. “In a few weeks this fall.”
The Florida Veterans Council is comprised of about a dozen member organizations. Most are nationally familiar veteran organizations, such as the American Legion. It has smaller, locally-known member veteran groups, too. The council coordinates veteran groups’ state legislative concerns to give the Florida Legislature focused proposals for pro-veterans legislation.
The council has called on the legislature to add state veterans nursing homes for at least a decade. The federal Department of Veteran Affairs figures with about 1.5 million veterans – a third of whom are Vietnam era – the state needs about 4,000 beds at veterans nursing facilities. The state now has about 900. The federal VA gives states construction grants to cover about 65 percent of building costs for veteran nursing homes.
Local discussion about the under-construction 121,000-square-foot facility started in 2014. The state legislature started a site-selection process for the next veterans nursing home in 2013. By the fall of 2014, a site-selection committee had picked the 28-acre location in Tradition.
When the committee made its recommendation to the executive director of the Florida Department of Veteran Affairs for the governor and state cabinet to approve, Marion County fervently protested. St. Lucie County edged it out in the committee’s scoring by a hair’s width. The cabinet delayed the vote until Marion reluctantly withdrew its bid for the home.
St. Lucie’s fight for the home wasn’t over. The first projected groundbreaking date was the tail end of 2015. However, there were delays exasperated by a design spat between the state and federal government that threatened to derail construction of the veterans nursing home. Local officials and veterans strongly advocated in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., for getting the home built.
Murray said hiring for many of the home’s about 170 positions will likely begin next year. It takes about 18 to 24 months to build a state veterans nursing home.
“That’s a goal – November 2019 to March 2020 to have a ribbon-cutting ceremony,” Murray said.
