by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
It’s not happy hour, but it is two-for-one for Northeast Florida.
Dan McCarthy, the director of military affairs for the City of Jacksonville, confirmed Tuesday that Northeast Florida is getting a long-sought veteran’s cemetery and a veterans nursing home.
“We will have both,” said McCarthy. “It has been decided. The nursing home will be 65 percent funded by the federal government and 35 percent funded by the state government and the state will maintain it.”
St. Johns County will serve as the host of the nursing home, which will be near Flagler Hospital and 1.2 miles from the World Golf Village. McCarthy said the City — particularly City Council member Lad Daniels — lobbied hard for a Duval County location, but the St. Johns site will suit the entire area just fine.
“It’s for all of Northeast Florida,” he said, explaining the criteria for admittance. “Eligibility for a bed is based on need and the hierarchy of the veteran. Veterans who went to combat or were injured in combat will be higher.”
The site of the Northeast Florida Veterans Nursing Home was selected by the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs over a site on Jammes Road on the west side of Jacksonville. McCarthy said the Jammes Road site may have been acceptable, but the 15 acres of undeveloped land in St. Johns County was too good to pass up. Too good, almost to even be true.
“Lad Daniels even said he couldn’t believe the county was willing to give up the land,” said McCarthy.
The nursing home will have 120 beds and construction is scheduled to begin in the next few months. McCarthy said the site is being prepared and the construction will take about a year.
“Our desire is to open in 2007,” said McCarthy. The need for a veterans nursing home in the area is big and growing all the time, he said. Northeast Florida is a long-time military hub and with an ongoing war in Iraq, injured veterans are coming home every day it seems.
“It’ll certainly help,” said McCarthy. “Just the other day we had a veteran at the beach whose brain was beginning to swell. He had nowhere to go, so we took him to the VA hospital in Gainesville. We had to give him some money for gas because so many of these veterans don’t have much.”
The cemetery will be built on one of two sites near Jacksonville International Airport. One is privately owned while the other is public land. The only real issue regarding the cemetery is funding. U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw has been beating this drum for quite a while now. Crenshaw’s aide Jackie Smith is the local point person on the project.
“Right now we have identified two sites and the veterans group has done their environmental studies on both,” said Smith, adding that Jacksonville is just one of several sites that are slated for a veterans cemetery in the near future. “Nationwide, Congress is looking at six sites in six different states.”
The funding was supposed to be approved last fall, but Smith said two issues took precedent.
“The budget wasn’t passed yet and the VA didn’t want to announce a site without being sure,” said Smith. “Also, some of the sites had problems with hurricanes. So, Congress is behind on approving the funding.”
Smith said that approval is expected next month. After that, the VA will move quickly to purchase land and begin construction. The only real decision left will be to pick a site. Smith said cost will be a factor and the only requirement is that the site be at least 250 acres.
“My gut tells me the best deal will be the piece of land publicly owned,” said Smith.
Both Smith and McCarthy expect the cemetery to be completed some time in 2008.