NLV site for VA hospital under wraps

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Sept. 23, 2004 | 11:24 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A North Las Vegas site has been selected for Nevada's new veterans medical center, Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi is expected to announce next week.

But an agency spokesman and aides to Nevada lawmakers today refused to release the exact location of the site. Four Nevada sources said a North Las Vegas site was chosen from several under consideration.

Principi plans to outline project details at a 10 a.m. Monday press conference at a department clinic at 2410 Fire Mesa St., near Smoke Ranch Road and Buffalo Drive.

The North Las Vegas site is now owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management, and Congress would have to transfer the land to the Veterans Administration, aides to Nevada lawmakers said.

Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., are crafting land transfer legislation, but it isn't clear whether it could be completed or approved by the end of the year, the aides said. Lawmakers are trying to wrap up their work by the end of the month.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., a longtime advocate of the project, said she was "very satisfied" with the location.

"It's accessible, it's large enough to facilitate the building of the hospital, the clinic and the long-term care facility, and there is room to expand," Berkley said.

North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon said he was thrilled with the site and sees no drawbacks.

"Anybody who wants to spend a quarter of a billion dollars for services here, they're welcome to," he said.

Nevada lawmakers for several years have lobbied Principi for his support for a new medical center to serve Southern Nevada's rapidly growing veterans population.

State officials have long said a new facility is needed to replace the 150,000-square-foot Addeliar Guy Ambulatory Care Center at 1700 Vegas Drive, which closed last year after structural problems were reported.

Last year Congress approved $25 million to begin designing the new $250 million medical center, which would include outpatient services, an 81-bed inpatient hospital and a nursing home. It could be complete in three to five years, according to estimates.

The VA operates 158 hospitals and about 860 outpatient clinics to serve the nation's 25 million veterans, about 242,000 in Nevada. About 60,000 were treated in VA facilities in Nevada last year.

The agency has been reluctant in recent years to construct big new hospitals, stressing a shift to outpatient clinic care. Principi has said his $62 billion budget for health care and benefits leaves little room to renovate old buildings or build new ones.

But Principi in May announced the results of a three-year study of the department's capital construction needs, including plans for 150 new clinics and just two major new medical centers, in Orlando and Southern Nevada.