VA clinic proposed for downtown

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Oct. 17, 2002 | 11:29 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Mayor Oscar Goodman and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., are pursuing a plan to construct a new veterans health clinic as part of the development of 61 vacant acres in downtown Las Vegas.

The plan could meet two goals: Goodman's crusade to develop a key piece of downtown real estate and Berkley's quest to improve veteran's health care.

Berkley, along with Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., have prodded Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi to build a new clinic in the Las Vegas area to replace the Addeliar Guy Ambulatory Care Center, which has structural problems.

Berkley on Wednesday met again with Principi in her office, where the two pored over a panoramic image of Las Vegas and discussed Clark County's growing population of veterans. Principi seemed to support the idea of constructing a new clinic downtown with easy access to interstates, Berkley said.

"We need this clinic, and we need it now," Berkley said after the meeting.

Goodman, who is in Atlanta for a mayors conference, joined the meeting by speaker phone.

Goodman and the Las Vegas City Council have long pondered a diverse list of development plans for the city-owned 61 acres between downtown and Interstate 15, north of the Clark County Government Center. Proposals have included a sports arena, a performing arts center, and an academic medical center. The veterans clinic seems to fit into the mayor's "dream" of a state-of-the-art medical complex, his spokeswoman, Elaine Sanchez, said.

Goodman has been pondering the clinic plan in recent weeks, Sanchez said.

The clinic likely would take up less than half the 61 acres, Berkley staffers said. Estimated costs are not yet available, Berkley said.

In a separate effort, Berkley has also goaded Principi to consider constructing a new full-service veterans hospital for Las Vegas, and this month she introduced legislation directing his department to build one. No lawmaker has pushed Principi harder for a whole new hospital than Berkley, Principi told Goodman during the Wednesday meeting, Berkley said.

The Veterans Affairs Department rarely builds new hospitals, opting instead to offer more outpatient clinics. But Berkley envisions one day expanding a new clinic downtown into a full-service hospital complex.

"We have to be forward-thinking on this," she said.

Meanwhile Principi told Berkley he would "fast-track" the new 250,000-square-foot clinic to replace the Guy center, she said. The new facility could open within 24 to 36 months, she said, if plans for locating the clinic move swiftly.

Principi is committed to constructing a new clinic, C.V. Yarbrough, chief facilities management officer for the VA, said.

The new clinic would replace the five-year-old, 150,000-square foot Guy center at 1700 Vegas Dr., which VA officials say has structural problems. The building's California-based owner asserts that the clinic can be repaired.

But Principi seems convinced that it cannot be repaired and that the clinic should be replaced, Berkley chief-of-staff Richard Urey said. The VA's Yarbrough said a VA-commissioned engineering study showed nine structural problems, three of them serious.

"We have to replace it," Yarbrough said.

Guy center officials are already making plans to vacate the center within the next few months, relocating to nine smaller facilities around Clark County. The Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital at Nellis Air Force Base will house the center's surgical specialty services.