Manassas, Stafford on short list for new vets health center

There’s an $85 million veteran’s care facility coming to Northern Virginia.

This year the Virginia General Assembly passed two bills that called for the building of two new veteran’s care centers in the state – one in Northern Virginia and one in Hampton Roads.

Currently, there are two existing veteran’s care centers in Virginia – the Virginia Veterans Care Center in Roanoke and the Sitter & Barfoot Veterans Care Center in Richmond.

According to Delegate Rich Anderson, who led the Northern Virginia bill through the House of Delegates stated that the area center will cost around $85 million – with 65% being paid by the federal government, and 35% being paid by Virginia.

Choosing a location for the care center

The bill passed in the General Assembly required that one of the care centers be built in Northern Virginia, but it did not stipulate the locality.

All area localities were allowed to put out a bid to the Virginia Department of Veterans Services to signal an interest in housing the veteran’s care center.

Prince William and Stafford counties were the only ones to do so.

Anderson stated that a locality that wanted to have the veteran’s care center would need to deed 25 acres of county-owned land to Virginia to be considered.

“One of the key things is the funding that’s made available to construct these veteran’s care centers – and it’s a mixture of federal money from the Veteran’s Administration and state money – it does not cover the cost of land acquisition. A locality has to provide the land at no cost,” said Anderson.

Recently, the Prince William board of supervisors passed a unanimous resolution to deed 27-acres off of Ashton Avenue near Manassas to Virginia for that purpose.

According to Stafford County spokeswoman Shannon Howell, Stafford filed their application to be considered but have not yet deeded the 25-acres to Virginia.

What the funding process, design, will look like

While the federal government is expected to foot 65% of the bill for the veteran’s care center in Northern Virginia, state and county government decided not to wait for the funding, and will upfront the cost.

“Instead of waiting for the feds to give us their 65%, Virginia’s just going to upfront the money in its entirety. Because if we sit around and wait for the federal government, it will just take a long time because they have a lot of needs with states that are requesting this money…hopefully, at some future point, we will be able to get a reimbursement from the federal government. There’s such a need here in Virginia – we’ve got 800,000 veterans in the state,” said Anderson.

There is no guarantee on when, and ultimately if, the federal government will give Virginia that 65 percent.

Anderson stated that currently the veteran’s care center is being designed, along with the location that will be built in Hampton Roads, and then the state will decide which one will be built first.

“The goal is to go ahead and design both centers right now – do all of the design work – and then the state will make a decision sometime next summer, on whether the Northern Virginia veteran’s care center will be first, or whether Hampton Roads will be constructed first,” Anderson stated.

Because Virginia is footing the bill for now, the veteran’s care center in Northern Virginia will only have 120 beds, instead of the planned 240 beds, said Anderson.

“Because Virginia has made the decision that we’re going to fund it entirely with Virginia resources, the plan is to construct a facility with…120 beds. But with that available land – 27 acres – that gives us plenty of expansion room for later years, building the facility out,” Anderson said.

Within the next year, the decision will be made on if the Hampton Roads or Northern Virginia location will be first.