Vets home cracked; opening delayed

Monday, Jan. 15, 2001 | 11:35 a.m.

The $21 million veterans home in Boulder City is not everything it is cracked up to be -- or maybe it is.

A report to the Nevada Veterans Service Commission on Friday revealed that unsightly -- but not structurally unsound -- cracks have been popping up in doorways, around windows and in jagged stretches along the interior walls, spelling even more delays for the opening of the facility.

"I've been told (by the construction committee) March 31 is the new projected completion date, but I am only minimally confident in that," said John Sias, director of the veterans home for the Nevada Office of Veterans Services.

Sias said that it would be at least two months after the completion date that the skilled-nursing home for military veterans who cannot otherwise afford such care could open -- nearly a year behind schedule.

Sias said he has been told that the cracks were caused either by some of the installation being done out of sequence -- the contractor was in his rights to do the sequence as he saw fit, Sias said -- or because the building was not properly acclimated.

Sias said after the building is about a year old, it should be properly acclimated and the cracks would stop.

Meanwhile, to the chagrin of veterans officials who had hoped to show off a modern wonder in veterans care, workers will be applying putty and painting over the cracks as they appear.

"Every time we cover one up others pop up," Sias said. "And they are not just in the seams. There are some that run jagged across a wall. It will be aggravating and costly to repair, and I do not know where we are going to get the money for that.

"But the building is still functional. It will not fall down."

Dan O'Brian of the State Public Works Board said the "pretty ugly" cracks are in the sheet rock. They appear in the corners of doors and windows and at the top center of the doorways.

Chuck Fulkerson, the recently appointed director of State Veterans Affairs told the Veterans Services Commission at its quarterly meeting that he will make, "the opening of the veterans home at the earliest possible time," one of his priorities.

By July the state's first veterans nursing home had fallen six months behind schedule. Ground was broken for the 180-bed facility in July 1999 following a dozen years of political wrangling.

The project's initial completion date was May 1, with its projected opening date two months later following the licensing process. That deadline was pushed to November for completion and Jan. 1 for opening.

By September, it was reported that the project also would be more costly than predicted -- about $900,000 more than the original $20 million price tag.

The original project also was reduced from 112,000 square feet to 88,000 square feet. And instead of each room having a bathroom, four veterans will have to share one bathroom.

Also, it was learned Friday that much of the landscaping, which initially was planned for several stages, has been put off and will be presented to the Legislature for allocation of funds necessary to do it all at once.

Despite the setbacks, the facility already has a waiting list of about 75 veterans. The nursing home will retain double the national average of certified nursing assistants, officials said.

"We are continuing to see progress -- we are hiring people, and we are excited about that," Sias said.

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