Veterans home to be built
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Gov. Linda Lingle has scaled back plans for a state long-term-care home for veterans in Hilo but authorized adding an adult daycare center to the project.
Tower Design Group rendering
Lingle yesterday announced the state will spend $10 million as matching money to build a 95-bed state veterans home facility with an adult daycare center on the Hilo Medical Center campus. The state Legislature this year set aside $16 million for a 200-bed facility, but a consultant hired to analyze the project said a 95-bed home could be financially self-supporting.
The state Legislature had set aside money for a 200-bed veterans care home, but a consultant said there wasn't enough demand for a facility that size and that a 95-bed home could be financially self-supporting. The facility is expected to be built by 2006.
Hawai'i, Delaware and Alaska are the only states without a state veterans home. Hawaii Health Systems Corporation president and chief executive officer Thomas Driskill Jr. said he expects the facility to be built by summer 2006. Hilo Medical Center is one of 12 hospitals managed and operated by the quasi-public health systems corporation.
Lingle said the state veterans home is "a long time in coming.
"The people of Hawai'i are greatly indebted to the veterans in this state — the men and women who signed up knowing it could have meant they lost their lives protecting the country— and all of us owe them a great debt," she said.
Big Island Mayor Harry Kim, who was pushing for a 200-bed facility, said he was disappointed that the governor approved a 95-bed project but that he was still delighted that the home was being built. Kim noted that the facility will be built to allow for expansions.
"The elation of getting a home is still there," Kim said, calling it an important accomplishment for all veterans in the state. He credited U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, D-Hawai'i, for securing federal money for the project.
The $10 million in state money represents 35 percent of the approximately $28 million cost of construction. The federal government will provide the remaining 65 percent, or $18 million, said HHSC public affairs director Miles Takaaze.
Driskill, who said there are up to 114,000 veterans statewide, said the facility is in Hilo partly because of the opportunity for free land. He noted that "we've achieved a degree of synergy with the veterans association in Hilo."
Lingle said the state Department of Defense will look into the idea of a similar state veterans facility on O'ahu.
"I think the initiative was brought about by the people in Hilo," Lingle said. "And I think it's to their credit that they recognize the statewide need and as people of the Neighbor Islands tend to think in these terms: 'Why does everything have to be in Honolulu?' "
Lingle said it was premature to say that private management of the Hilo veterans facility is a certainty, "but it's something we're serious about." She said the consultant's report determined the facility may be economically feasible if it can operate under private management instead of the state civil service system.
Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
