FUNDS APPROVED FOR ANNA VETERANS HOME

ANNA, Ill. -- Jim Edgar brought some good news with him to Anna last week.

The Illinois governor announced that he was approving $3.4 million in capital development funds for construction of a veterans home here.

The governor's office announced Tuesday that construction is expected to get under way within two to three months on the 39,000-square-foot veterans center with completion expected within 15 months.

"This is good news for Southern Illinois veterans and for the entire Southern Illinois economy," said Edgar, who made his announcement where the facility will be built. "Our veterans of the armed forces did their job for us, and now it is our responsibility to take care of them as they age and require nursing care and medical attention.

"The addition of a veterans home in this area will help us fulfill our mission of caring for those veterans and eliminate the need for them to travel far from their families and friends for that care."

The veterans home will provide skilled nursing care for veterans in a modern facility.

The facility will be on a 16-acre tract near the Clyde Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center, and will be a 60-bed facility; 50 beds for skilled nursing care and 10 for residential care patients. Plans call for 23 two-bed rooms and four single-bed rooms.

The apartment-type, or residential care, units will include beds, a small stove, refrigerator, dining area and pantry, bath and small utility room. A television room and resident lounge will be near the dining-multipurpose rooms.

Included in the facility will be rooms for physical and rehabilitative therapy, dining and dental care. Plans also call for an on-site pharmacy.

"This project has been on the drawing board for several years, and I am pleased that the state is now able to go forward with it," said Edgar. "It will provide substantial economic benefits to an area where unemployment is well above the state average."

The governor said there are more than 71,000 veterans now living in Southern Illinois. As many as a third of the state's 1.2 million veterans will be over the age of 70 by the year 2000.

"Because of the proximity of three major wars World War II, the Korean conflict, and the war in Vietnam the need for nursing care for veterans is expected to increase for the next two decades," said Edgar. "The home here will meet the needs of veterans from Southern Illinois who now must travel too far from their home towns to receive adequate care in homes operated by the Department of Veteran Affairs."

The state supports three other veteran homes at Quincy, Manteno and LaSalle.

The General Assembly appropriated $3.9 million for the new building in Anna, and the state will be reimbursed by the U.S. Department of Veterans of Affairs for 65 percent of the cost about $2.5 million when construction is completed. Approximately $450,000 already has been spent in planning the facility.

The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs will operate the veterans home.

The Anna center has been in the planning stage for more than a decade. The original proposal was made in 1978 with a plan to renovate two existing buildings on the grounds of the Anna Mental Health and Development Center.

Architects who made a study of the two existing buildings concluded that renovations of the Athens and Lence buildings would not be feasible, and recommended a new building for the facility.

"The two buildings would not be large enough to hold the programs we're looking at," said a spokesman for the Illinois Veterans Affairs office.