CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Advocates for a regional veterans’ nursing home want to know why projects in Bradley and Montgomery counties lost ground last month on the Veterans Administration funding priority list.
Representatives for U.S. Reps. Chuck Fleischman and Scott Dejarles and U.S. Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander attended the Southeast Tennessee Veterans Nursing Home Council on Thursday.
“We are still very much in the running, but we are waiting for an official explanation,” said Larry McDaris, Bradley County veterans services director.
Since the new list was published in February, supporters have learned of another priority previously unknown: the VA can rank according to need as well as local funding support. Bradley and Montgomery counties were ranked as “limited need” previously, the same as the Virginia projects that jumped ahead this year.
But now the three Virginia projects are ranked as “significant need,” the highest level.