Veterans clinic to close for structural repairs

Jace Radke

Wednesday, April 3, 2002 | 11:05 a.m.

Cracked concrete around supports and pillars greets Gilbert Rivero when he visits the Addeliar D. Guy III Ambulatory Care Clinic to get his prescription filled for his ailing knee.

Rivero, a Navy man who served in a mobile construction battalion in the 1960s, can only shake his head when he sees rope barriers to protect against the possibility of falling debris outside the clinic at Vegas Drive and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

"We knew how to build a building in the SeaBees," Rivero said Tuesday at the clinic, which serves area veterans. "Veterans have to come here, because for a lot of us it's our only choice."

By as soon as September, veterans will be getting their care somewhere else as the 160,000 square-foot clinic is shuttered for at least a year so that newly discovered structural problems can be addressed.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and clinic Director John Hempel said Tuesday that 11 temporary sites are being considered to house the facility during construction.

"We're hoping to find a site that is a single campus, so we can keep all the services in one spot for the veterans," Hempel said. "We have six months to plan the move, so that we can maintain our services for the veterans that count on us."

The problems are considered skeletal in nature, with the weight of the building putting too much pressure on supports and structures in the building, Hempel said.

"We don't really have a clue as to why this is happening, but it's not seismic, or caused by heat or anything like that," Hempel said. "I think it's probably a problem that was there in the design."

The problem was discovered about a year ago when the facilities engineer was trying to install a new air handler on the roof and found that the weight could not be supported.

Hempel ordered a survey on the building, which revealed the flaws. The flaws do not threaten the safety of patients or staff at the clinic, but they could become serious hazards if they are not addressed, Hempel said.

The $16 million clinic opened in 1997 and provides outpatient care, including X-rays, blood work, prosthetics, dermatology, radiology and dental services.

Once a temporary location is chosen, Hempel estimates it will take another 60 days to move all the equipment and personnel. During that time the clinic will likely contract out to area hospitals, with the Department of Veterans Affairs footing the bill.

"We hope to get the money from the VA's contingency fund, because our operating budget is already stretched," Hempel said.

Veterans Affairs has contacted the Moreland Corp., a California company that was the contractor for the clinic, and asked that the company come up with a solution and a timetable for the repairs.

Comments from the Bakersfield, Calif., company were not immediately available.

Berkley said that she hopes to use this problem as a springboard to provide better care for Southern Nevada's veterans.

"We're long overdue for a veterans hospital in this community, and maybe this issue can serve as a sea change," Berkley said. "We're going to make sure that the VA gives us the facility we need, because we're going to have more and more veterans coming here."