Governor Rell Announces Stimulus Funding for 

Veterans Home Renovations

U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gives Conditional Approval for

Nearly $6M to Improve Residential Facilities at Rocky Hill Campus

            Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced that the U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs has given conditional approval for nearly $6 million in federal stimulus funding for improvements to the living quarters at the State Veterans Home in Rocky Hill.

            The $9.16 million project will renovate the World War II-era main residential buildings that currently house 394 homeless and needy veterans. U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki has set aside 65 percent of the project cost to be paid for by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Connecticut now has 180 days to complete additional requirements such as architectural drawings and other technical matters. The final grant award is expected by April.

            “This is tremendously exciting news and will continue the much-needed upgrades we are making to the Veterans Home campus,” Governor Rell said. “We owe so much to these veterans. This project will modernize the heating and ventilation system and make important energy efficiency improvements to the living quarters while taking advantage of the stimulus to keep state expenses to a minimum. Most importantly, our partnership with the federal VA is making a real difference in the life of our veterans.

            “Our state was the first in the nation to commit to providing a home to veterans who needed it – a commitment that dates to the middle of the Civil War,” the Governor said. “Through the years, they have answered the call of duty. Now we have a duty to provide a safe, comfortable and dignified home for them.”

            The Connecticut Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) originally applied to the VA for a grant to renovate the residential buildings in 2006. Connecticut’s project is at the top of the VA’s national priority list of 49 projects eligible for new funding through the stimulus, formally known as 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 residential buildings were completed in 1940. The DVA’s renovation plans call for making the brick, two-story buildings handicapped-accessible, upgrading fire sprinkler systems, modernizing common bathroom areas, replacing leaky roofs and gutters and upgrading to energy-efficient HVAC systems, including completing the installation of centralized air conditioning in the veteran sleeping areas.

            A joint working group that includes DVA Commissioner Dr. Linda S. Schwartz and Public Works Commissioner Raeanne V. Curtis is completing the necessary final grant materials for submission to the VA.

            This is the third major joint Federal-State project at the Veterans Home campus since 2004. In October 2008, the $34 million, 125-bed Sgt. John L. 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 also installed in 2008 to supply reliable domestic and fire protection water to all residential buildings on campus.

            Under Governor Rell, 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 – 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.

            “We must continue to keep the faith with those who have served,” said Dr. 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.”

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