Veterans impatient with pace of VA medical facility project

WASHINGTON -- Government plans to build a veterans medical complex in North Las Vegas took further shape this week but some veterans are growing impatient with the pace of the project.

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates the 90-bed hospital and outpatient clinic, and an accompanying nursing home, will be open by mid-2011, two years later than first planned.

Costs have grown as well, from $286 million estimated in February 2005 to more than $600 million in the VA's budget that was released earlier this year. The agency attributes the increase to redesigns and the cost of supplies and labor in Southern Nevada.

"We think this is a farce, the longer this takes the more materials are costing. They are dragging their feet building this thing," said Steve Sanson, a former Marine corporal and Gulf War veteran.

"I am hearing that from a lot of veterans. If you walk into any VFW outfit they will tell you the same thing," said Sanson, president of the Las Vegas chapter of Veterans in Politics International, a military watchdog group.

Sanson said Spring Valley Hospital was built in a fraction of the time it will take the VA to construct its facility.

A spokeswoman for Spring Valley Hospital confirmed it took 18 months "start to finish" to build the facility on South Rainbow. It opened in October 2003 with 210 beds at a $70 million cost, according to the hospital's Web site.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she shares the frustration.

"I have said in public hearings it is incredulous to me that we can build a 5,000-room hotel in Las Vegas in under two years and it takes five years to get a VA hospital completed," Berkley said.

But Berkley, who sits on the House veterans affairs committee, noted Congress has fully funded the medical center, at least at the latest levels the VA says it needs to complete the project.

"Have you ever known anything to go quickly in the federal government?" Berkley said. "My veterans have been expressing frustration since before the project was approved. They would like this to be done today. I would like it done yesterday."

The VA agreed to build a full-service hospital in Southern Nevada to address the growing number of retirees who are former military. Outpatient clinics are scattered around the valley, while veterans in need of more complicated care are recommended to VA facilities in Southern California.

The medical center is being built on 147 acres of donated federal land at Pecos Road and the Las Vegas Beltway in North Las Vegas. Since the area had been largely undeveloped, the VA has had to take extra steps to prepare the site, according to a Berkley aide.

Groundbreaking took place last October.

According to the VA, 54,000 veterans are enrolled in the Southern Nevada health care system. There are 216,000 veterans living in Clark County, a population that is growing with the return of service personnel from Iraq and Afghanistan.

VA officials in Washington and in Las Vegas did not respond to phone calls on Thursday concerning the project.

But on Wednesday, the VA announced the project was moving forward with the award of construction contracts to two Las Vegas companies.

Whiting-Turner Construction Company will be given $9.17 million to put in foundations for the center and for an accompanying warehouse. That phase is expected to be completed by next May.

A $47.8 million contract was awarded to Clark Construction Group LLC to design and build a 120-bed nursing home next to the hospital. The VA said that segment should be completed by August 2009.

The VA plans to hand out the main hospital construction job by next April, according to a timetable the agency has provided to Congress.

That contract will be for $497.4 million and is expected to be finished by December 2010, according to the VA.

Another six months would be needed to equip and staff the facility, according to what VA officials have told Berkley and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.

"This construction project will ensure Nevada's veterans continue to receive top-notch health care from the VA," acting VA secretary Gordon Mansfield said in a statement.

The Nevada project was on the agenda when Ensign met Nov. 5 with James Peake, a retired general who has been nominated to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Peake would succeed James Nicholson, who stepped down Oct. 1. Ensign sits on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee that will vote on the nominee.

"Ensign received a commitment from Mr. Peake to have this completed as soon as possible," spokesman Tory Mazzola said of the veterans hospital.

"Peake acknowledged the veterans population is growing fast, and this would be a top priority," Mazzola said.