Possible rebuild of Holyoke Soldiers’ Home on a tight timeline
The race is on for lawmakers to weigh in on plans to rebuild the pandemicwracked Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, with millions of dollars in federal funding on the line and a “critical” deadline just two weeks away.
In a hearing Tuesday, advocates and Baker administration officials pushed lawmakers to pass Gov. Charlie Baker’s $400 million bond bill by April 1, so the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance can fully design the project before the federal Veterans Administration’s Aug. 1 grant application deadline.
“The VA reimbursement is what we are absolutely banking on,” Alda Rego, of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, said. “I don’t even want to contemplate what it would be like if it wasn’t approved.”
The bill Baker filed on Feb. 11 needs favorable reports out of three committees and passage in both Legislative chambers. Blowing any of the deadlines means Massachusetts would have to wait another year for a shot at a 65% reimbursement from the feds for the up to 234-bed project.
Sen. John Velis said it’s “absolutely critical” for his colleagues to meet those deadlines.
“We can’t guarantee this money’s going to be there next year,” said Massachusetts National Guard Maj. Gen. Gary Keefe, who chairs the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home trustees board.
But State Administration and Regulatory Oversight committee co-chair Sen. Marc Pacheco questioned the truncated timeline that left legislators with just weeks to act.
And Disabled American Veterans Massachusetts legislative director Jesse Flynn said his group was “reluctant” to endorse the pricey project that will offer access to care for “only a small portion of our elderly veteran population.”
Jesus Pereira, the veteran services director for the city of Holyoke, argued the revamped facility is an “absolute necessity” in a part of Massachusetts that’s “battled the state for equitable funding” long before the deadly COVID-19 outbreak that killed 77 veterans last year.
“Would you look me in the eye and tell me when it’s my turn to receive care at the soldiers’ home, that I don’t deserve it?” Pereira, a National Guard and Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran, said.
Bill LeBeau, of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Massachusetts, said the Holyoke project is “shovel ready” and “if we pass on this opportunity right now you’re going to be telling the residents … that they have to wait this much longer.”