Governor Rell Seeking VA Stimulus Funding

for State Veterans Home Renovations

Rocky Hill Grant Application is No. 1

on Federal VA Priority List

            Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced that her administration is working to qualify for new federal stimulus funding to move forward with additional renovations to the State Veterans Home at Rocky Hill.

            The proposed $9.1 million project would renovate the World War II-era main residential buildings of the State Veterans Home that currently house 394 homeless and needy veterans who have served from World War II to the present. If approved, 65 percent of the project cost will be paid for by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

            “This is a tremendous opportunity to leverage federal stimulus funding and we intend to go after this grant award aggressively,” said Governor Rell. “We are still playing catch up at the State Veterans Home, trying to bring that facility into the 21^st century after too many years of neglect. By maximizing every available federal funding opportunity, we intend to preserve the key infrastructure at Rocky Hill for future generations of deserving veterans.”

            The Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) originally applied to the VA for a grant to renovate the Home’s residential buildings in 2006. Connecticut’s project is now at the top of the VA’s national priority list of 49 projects eligible for new funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The VA is making $150 million in grant funding available before October 1 for state veterans home construction and renovation projects across the nation.

            The DVA’s renovation plans call for making the brick, two-story buildings completed in 1940 handicapped-accessible, installing new fire sprinkler systems, modernizing common bathroom areas, replacing leaky roofs and gutters and upgrading HVAC systems to include completing the installation of air conditioning in the veteran sleeping areas.

            DVA Commissioner Linda S. Schwartz and Public Works Commissioner Raeanne V. Curtis have designated a joint working group to complete the necessary grant materials for submission to the VA by June 15. Announcement of the national grant awards is expected by the early fall.

            If the grant is awarded to Connecticut, this will be the third major joint Federal-State project at the Veterans Home campus since 2004. Last fall, the new $34 million, 125-bed Sgt. John Levitow Veterans Health Center opened to serve medically fragile veterans requiring long-term care and therapy services. A $4.6 million water distribution system was installed in 2008 to supply reliable domestic and fire protection water to all residential buildings on campus.

            The State of Connecticut and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs have jointly invested an unprecedented $42 million in federal and state funding in the State Veterans’ Home over the last several years – the most new funding for improvements at the facility in over six decades.

            No major infrastructure upgrades or renovations have been made to the residential buildings complex – which includes eight residential wings and the main dining room – since 1940. In the past three years the Connecticut DVA has used both state and donated funds to install new fire safety doors throughout the buildings, install air conditioning in four of the eight wings and upgrade an internal medical clinic that provides daily medical services to the nearly 400 homeless residents. One of the wing interiors was renovated in the early 1990s to accommodate 25 women veterans.

            “Connecticut was the first state in the nation to commit to taking care of its veterans in a residential setting in 1863 – and we must continue to keep that faith with those who have served.” said Commissioner Schwartz. “Thousands of veterans have considered these buildings their home over the years. It is past time to bring them up to modern building codes and conveniences so at least another generation of veterans can call them ‘home’ when needed.”