Focus placed on local VA hospital project
FRENCH CAMP — A military veteran addressing federal officials Tuesday about the continued delays in providing expanded veterans health services in the Northern San Joaquin Valley recalled how, a few years ago, a much older veteran attended a congressional town hall meeting and addressed Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock.
“When will we have a VA hospital here?” the veteran recalled the 87-year-old man asking Denham. Denham, according to the vet, answered “soon.” His older friend asked again: “When?” Denham replied: “As soon as we can,” according to the vet. The older man continued: “Will it be in my lifetime?”
The veteran then made his point: “His lifetime’s almost gone. As a matter of fact, I think he’s passed away. He’s not going to see it. That’s all we’re asking is when are we going to see it?”
That veteran was one of about two dozen who attended another congressional town hall Tuesday in French Camp hosted by another congressman, Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton.
Tuesday’s town hall focused exclusively on the project to construct a four-story, 158,000square-foot Community Based Outpatient Clinic offering an expanded list of primary and specialized medical, dental and mental health services for the 80,000 veterans living in the region.
Currently, vets with many unique health needs not addressed in the Valley’s smaller clinics must travel over the Altamont Pass into Bay Area traffic, usually all the way to the veterans hospital in Palo Alto. That typically takes a full day.
McNerney, elected to Congress in 2006, said the initial feasibility study for the project was completed in 2004. Six years later, Congress appropriated $55 million to purchase land north of San Joaquin General Hospital.
“That land has been purchased,” McNerney said. “2016, Congress appropriated $139 million for the clinic. So the money is there. It’s not about the money. In 2016, the design should have been completed but there was a redesignation of the flood plain from 100-year to 500year. That’s caused a certain amount of delay.
“But in 2017 — in July, just last month — a one-and-ahalf-year delay was announced,” McNerney said. “There is a little bit of a disconnect between what the expectation is and what the reality is.”
In his discussions with officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs responsible for the project design and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers responsible for carrying out the construction, McNerney expressed confidence the project is moving forward. “I know the design is more or less finished,” he said, adding: “We’re going to provide oversight and transparency as much as possible from my office.”
The project schedule, as outlined last month by a planning official from the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, calls for advertising for construction bids in spring 2018 with the expected award for construction the following winter. Construction completion is estimated during the winter of 2021-22 and the first patients should be seen in the new clinic during the summer of 2022.
The latest delays are attributable primarily to the transfer of construction oversight from the VA to the Army Corps, according to officials from both agencies, and the flood-plain change from a 100-year standard to a 500-year standard.
That latter point, however, may be mute as of Tuesday after President Trump signed a new executive order intended to make more efficient the federal permitting process for construction of transportation, water and other infrastructure projects without harming the environment.
Trump’s order includes revoking an earlier executive order signed by President Obama requiring that projects built in flood plains with federal aid take sea level rise driven by climate change into account in their design, White House officials said. Trump has suggested the predicted risks from sea level rise are overblown.
A copy of Trump’s executive order wasn’t immediately available. Describing his action, Trump said projects still will be subjected to environmental safeguards.
Upon learning of this action following the meeting, McNerney issued the following statement on the French Camp project:
“This facility needs to be built as soon as possible and as safely as possible. Throughout this process, I’ve worked hard to hold the VA accountable. Today’s town hall was one of the steps to ensure that this project moves forward and that the community is kept informed. I helped secure the necessary funding for this facility, and any further delays are unacceptable to me and to the veterans in our community.”