Site of proposed veterans home moves

Thursday, Jan. 30, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Because of apparent water pressure problems, the proposed veterans home will not be built adjacent to Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital, but rather a mile away at the mouth of the infamous northeast Las Vegas auto graveyard.

The 40-member veterans advisory committee was informed of these plans Wednesday at a meeting at the Clark County Government Center.

The meeting was addressed by Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., who noted: "We are going to remain committed to seeing this thing through to groundbreaking."

For many years, a good number of area veterans thought that earth-turning ceremony for the skilled nursing center would occur on a patch of desert land, conveniently next door to the federal hospital.

However, the project, funded by federal and state money, now is set for the corner of Interstate 15 and Lamb Boulevard, adjacent to a maze of unsightly auto junkyards.

Last year, a four-day-long trash fire burned at one of the businesses near where the veterans home is now planned.

"If the home were to be built on the site (that has long been suggested), there would not be enough water pressure to reach the second floor," an Ensign aide said after the meeting.

"At this (the new) site, the facility will be hooked up to North Las Vegas water and sewer, and the water pressure will be much better."

Federal money had been approved for the 180-bed facility last year, but remained in limbo until earlier this month when Gov. Bob Miller committed the state's required 35 percent -- $6 million to $7 million -- to build the project. Funding to run the home also will be split 65-35.

Nevada is one of five states that does not have a nursing home for aging and ailing military veterans.

In another matter before the committee, Veterans Affairs Regional Director Smith Jenkins said Las Vegas will not be put on the back burner when it comes to funding.

Several veterans had expressed concerns that his office in Long Beach, Calif., may not understand Las Vegas' growth or needs.

Jenkins told the committee that additional funding for projects such as the new veterans clinic on Martin Luther King Boulevard and Owens Avenue, slated to treat its first patients in June, won't lag.

He controls about $870 million in government money for the region -- about $55 million of which goes to Southern Nevada, up $11 million from last year, an Ensign aide said.