A seven-month endeavor to bring a veterans health care facility to Iola — which until last week had been kept under wraps — was brought before Iola commissioners and a standing-room-only crowd at City Hall Monday.
Iolan Carolyn McLean, the driving force behind attracting the facility, spoke to commissioners about her hopes to have the facility, which would serve as a nursing home, assisted living facility and outpatient clinic for veterans.
McLean is applying for a grant utilizing state and federal funds for the facility’s construction. The federal money, which would fund 65 percent of the building’s construction, already has been approved and is awaiting state action. State monies would pay for the remaining 35 percent.
The only cost to Iola would be in the form of city property. McLean requested the city donate approximately 20 acres of land. She targeted land immediately south of Oregon Road and to the northwest of Cedarbrook Golf Course.
Commissioners eagerly agreed to allow the land be reserved for the next three years. If the grant is not approved by then, the land would revert back to the city.
The veterans facility was brought before the public by commissioner and mayoral candidate Bill Shirley at a candidate open house March 29.
Iola is an ideal location for the facility, McLean said, because it is centrally located between outlying metropolitan areas. The facility would draw residents from 11 counties: Allen, Neosho, Bourbon, Anderson, Woodson, Coffey, Wilson, Crawford, Labette, Montgomery and Cherokee. In all, more than 16,000 vets would be eligible to use the 83-bed facility.
McLean’s effort has drawn the blessing of State Rep. Bill Otto and State Sen. Jeff King, as well as from Kansas’ Congressional delegation.
“The lawmakers agree that Iola is a perfect location,” McLean said.
But hurdles remain.
The initial application phase must be completed, including the governor’s designation of authorized state official and contact person, and sent to Washington, D.C., by April 15 in order for Iola to receive the grant in 2012, although applications could be submitted after that deadline for 2013 or beyond. The initial application is a checklist of major requirements for state-home construction projects.
And even if the grant application falls through, the county still will benefit because some veterans outreach services could be incorporated into the new hospital when it is built. McLean said she had concerns the application will not be submitted in time because of the multitude of information that must be compiled locally, by the grant writer and by legislators.
McLean noted that any VA outreach services incorporated into the hospital would have the added benefit of being funded solely by the Veterans Administration. She also pointed out that the veterans facility would not affect ACH’s designation as a critical access facility.
“That’s a very big deal,” she said.
McLean listed some of the obvious benefits of having the facility built in Iola. More than 100 state employee jobs would be brought to the community, and additional services could be provided to ACH.
The idea for the facility came about last year even before the countywide referendum in which voters overwhelmingly supported the new hospital.
McLean originally proposed using the existing ACH facility for the veterans center, but learned quickly that its design and age would not work.
The facility would have to be on a single floor, she explained — the current hospital is a two-story building with a basement — and the existing hospital’s aging infrastructure is part of why the county needed a new health care facility to begin with.
Kafer Peele, an administrative assistant for Jack Fowler, executive director of the State of Kansas Commission on Veterans’ Affairs, is serving as Iola’s grant writer.
Mayor Bill Maness noted that since news of the veterans facility leaked, that some had assumed it was led by the city. Rather, it has been McLean who scheduled nearly all of the meetings between Iola leaders and state and federal officials and worked with other groups such as the American Legion and the Veterans Administration.
“This has been entirely a citizen-initiated project from the get-go,” Maness said, lauding McLean’s efforts.
The facility’s construction would assume extension of Cottonwood Street to Oregon Road, the third phase of development of the Cedarbrook land on the north edge of Iola.
IN A RELATED matter, Iola City Administrator Judy Brigham said Iola has options and opportunities to still benefit from the new hospital if it is built north of Oregon Road on what is now outside the city limits.
The city could annex the land to gain the right to provide the new hospital with its utilities, she said.
Brigham’s comments were in response to a question from Donald Becker, a city council candidate, about whether relocating the planned hospital from East Street to north of town would adversely affect the city.
“These were some of the same questions we had,” Brigham said.
Brigham said Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative, which owns proprietary rights to sell electric service to the land north of Oregon “would be willing” to reach an agreement with Iola for the city to sell its electricity to the hospital. Iola is assured of providing wastewater facilities to the hospital at the new site, although Brigham was unsure about water treatment.
If Iola were to annex the land, the city would likely reach out to Allen County to assist with snow removal along Oregon Road, which would then be inside the city limits.
“Right now, we don’t have the capability to cover that route as well,” Brigham said.
Brigham said more concrete answers would be provided when trustees decide on the hospital site, perhaps as soon as today.
DEVELOPERS of a planned senior housing complex in the Cedarbrook Second Addition are one step closer to seeing their plans to build a senior housing complex come to fruition.
Commissioners unanimously approved a land option for Dean Development to purchase about 4.4 acres of land for $65,850. The firm is continuing the process of receiving state tax credits for the project.
Having the land option in place is one of the requirements for the company to receive state tax credits, Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock explained.
The developers likely will have a site plan ready for the Iola Planning Commission within the next few weeks, Schinstock said.
