CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The proposed Bradley County Veterans Home will cost more to build and likely provide fewer beds because of new rules from the Tennessee State Veterans Home Board.
Instead of a single building holding two residents per room, the home will consist of about 12 smaller community living centers, each with 10 separate bedrooms plus a kitchen, Bradley County Veterans Service Officer Joe Davis said.
That plan would cost about $22.5 million, Davis said, about $1.5 million more than the original design.
Initial plans called for a 140-bed home, but the number may be reduced by 20 to 40 to keep costs down, Davis said.
The Tennessee State Veterans Home Board will determine the final bed count around Aug. 15, he said.
Larry McDaris, director of the Bradley County Veterans Service Office, said he hopes the number of beds can be increased later, perhaps during or after construction.
Funding for the home will be 65 percent federal, 35 percent state and local. The bulk of fundraising so far has happened locally.
A donor gave 29 acres of land on Westland Drive and another put up $3 million, but there’s still $4 million to be raised, McDaris said.
“The state has been in no shape to help us at all,” McDaris said. “It’s strictly an economic issue.”
Bradley County and the city of Cleveland have pledged to donate the difference, but Davis said he worries that newly elected commissioners may decide not to support the home when the time comes.
HOW TO HELP
For information about donating to the Bradley County Veterans Home project, call Veteran Services Officer Joe Davis at 423-728-7149.
The local governments would likely have to take loans to fund the project in addition to working with an already cash-strapped budget, he said.
The Bradley County home ranks 51st on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs priority list for construction projects, meaning the federal government won’t ask for the matching funds until next year, Davis said. Construction probably won’t begin before 2012, he added.
According to the county’s veteran services website, there were 45,861 veterans in the Bradley County area as of 2007. The number of veterans aged 65 to 84 is projected to reach nearly 18,000 by 2014, the website states.
The state now has veterans homes in Murfreesboro, Humboldt and Knoxville. Opening a home in Cleveland could provide up to 230 jobs, Davis said.
Continue reading by following these links to related stories:
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Article: Westland site named for veterans nursing home in Bradley
Harrison Keely is a Web producer and live blogger for the Times Free Press. He joined the Chattanooga Times Free Press as a reporter in 2010, primarily covering Cleveland, Tenn. and Bradley County news. As a member of the newspaper’s Web team, he handles social media and oversees the paper’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Harrison previously served as managing editor of the Smoky Mountain Sentinel in western North Carolina and as a business reporter for ...
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