First-of-its-kind veterans' service center planned
Collier County is home to over 26,000 veterans. We owe our freedom and security to the men and women who were willing to risk their lives to protect us from all enemies, foreign and domestic. By providing veterans in Collier County the long-term nursing home care, rehabilitation services, adult day health care services, along with the other supports and services that have been earned by them, the goal of making Collier County the most veteran-friendly county in Florida is closer to reality.
This long-term care campus will be the first of its kind, offering a range of services never before proposed by the Florida Department of Veterans’ Affairs (FDVA) and going well beyond the traditional offerings of a nursing home. FDVA is so proud of this Collier County project that they have opted to rebrand the facility as a Veterans’ Long-Term Care Community.
The county has committed $40 million in sales tax revenues for the Veterans’ Long-Term Care Community and the Florida Legislature has appropriated $10.5 million towards the project. To obtain federal funding for the project, FDVA applied for $74 million in federal construction matching funds for the Long-Term Care Community.
The Veterans’ Long-Term Care Community will feature 120 skilled nursing beds consisting of two “neighborhoods” of 60 beds. These neighborhoods will each have their own gazebos and gardens, libraries and computer rooms, and a specialized sensory therapy room known as a Snoezelen room. The neighborhoods will also be connected to a “community center” that will feature amenities such as a coffee shop, sports bar, chapel and barbershop. Outpatient services are planned that will include Ault Day Health Care services for all the veterans in the county. The Adult Day Health Care portion of the facility will have approximately 45 participant slots to allow family caregivers to hold employment and/or take a well-deserved respite from looking after their loved one.
In addition, the county has dedicated a building near the Long-Term Care Community to serve as a “Veteran Services and Community Center.” The county’s Veterans’ Services offices and offerings would be expanded and relocated from the main county campus to this facility on Golden Gate Parkway.
The Veteran Services and Community Center will also be the new home for the Military and First Responders Museum. This facility will provide a network of service providers to enhance veterans’ access to food, health care, financial and legal assistance, and housing and employment services. The building would also feature meeting space to a variety of local veterans’ support groups to augment the county’s service coordination.
With the assistance and political support of Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, a Community Project Funding application requesting $9 million for the renovation of the Veteran Services and Community Center was submitted to the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing & Urban Development (THUD) for fiscal year 2025. Congressman Diaz-Balart is the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee and a member of the THUD subcommittee.
Should the construction match be awarded by the VA, and should Congress allocate the $9 million toward the Veteran Community and Services Center, Collier County will be the nationwide standard-bearer in service provision to veterans.
They’ve earned it. Working together, we will accomplish it!
Burt Saunders is a Collier County commissioner, District 3.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: First-of-its-kind veterans' service center planned
