35 cents
VOL. 4/ISSUE 5
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2015
Dollars in Gold Star Families honored at governor’s Brevard Veterans Day tribute budget for Port St. Lucie veterans home Patrick McCallister STAFF WRITER
pmccallister@YourVoiceWeekly.com
Gov. Rick Scott is asking the Florida Legislature for nearly $11 million to increase capacity at the state’s veteran nursing homes. About $6.7 million will be added to turning the Ardie R. Copas State Veterans’ Nursing Home in Port St. Lucie from eager expectation to reality. “We are working with the federal (Department of Veterans Affairs) which provides 65 percent of the matching funds,” Steve Murray, communications director at the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs, said. “We’re continuing to finally tune the plan for the facility.” The home will be the seventh state veterans nursing home. When opened it’ll have private rooms for 120 to 128 veterans. Murray said all the state homes stay at capacity. Greg Oravec, Mayor of Port St. Lucie, said the city is eager to see the home getting built. “We applaud the governor for carving, for finding, money to take care of our veterans,” Oravec said. “We’re looking forward to the construction of the Ardie R. Copas facility in Tradition.” The Florida Cabinet selected the Tradition community in Port St. Lucie for the state’s next veteran home in September, 2013. It voted to name it after Fort Pierce Medal of Honor recipient Ardie Ray Copas in January, 2014. Copas posthumously received the nation’s highest military honor in 2013. State veterans homes are named after deceased Medal of Honor recipients who have ties to the areas they’re located. When opened, the Copas Home will have about
Photo montage by Roger Scruggs At the Veterans Day ceremony held at Brevard Veterans Memorial Center at Merritt Island Nov. 11, Gold Star Families were paid a special tribute. Other activities included an Honor Guard, Viera High School Band, JROTC Color Guard, rifle salute and a catered lunch. Elsewhere in Brevard County, American Legion Post 1 in Titusville conducted a wreath-laying ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park. Cocoa held its 10th annual memorial tribute, with a parade beginning at Riverfront Park, with a static display and formal stage presentation. 170 to 190 employees and generate about $7 million a year in wages. Additionally, it’ll spend about another $5 million a year locally for supplies and services. Murray said the Florida Department of Management Services, which oversees the design and construction of state veterans homes, has gone through a process of reviewing the VA’s updated nursing home requirements and hiring the architect, Rogers, Lovelock, and Fritz, of Orlando. Murray said the architect has submitted and the federal veterans department has reviewed and approved most of the designs. “It’s entered the fine minutia,” Murray said. “We’re making progress on that.” The Florida Legislature meets in a 60-day session from March to May. The state’s fiscal year starts in July. If the legislature approves the governor’s budget request, that’s when the additional dollars would be available. Murray said there’ll likely be a groundbreaking in the spring or summer of 2016 if the dollars come down.
“What that would do is get us to the point to where we can break grounds on the facility,” Murray said. “It helps us tie up all the loose ends.” Construction will take about two years. The homes need a lot of specializations for accommodating routine and extreme conditions. The state veterans homes hunker down with residents in place during hurricanes and other natural disasters, such as nearby forest fires. Also in the governor’s proposed budget is about $4.1 million toward getting work started on selecting a site for and the designing of an eighth state veterans home. In 2013 an appointed site-selection committee picked St. Lucie County by a paper thin margin over Marion in scoring done by visiting proposed sites in eight counties that expressed interest. Collier County was also near the top in the committee’s scores. If business had gone as usual, the state
See BUDGET page 7