thedrifter
06-23-07, 05:45 PM
Retirement home a dream come true for many
By Victoria St. Martin - The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune via AP
Posted : Saturday Jun 23, 2007 11:01:14 EDT
RESERVE, La. — Gene Vicknair was the first veteran admitted to the Southeast Louisiana War Veterans Retirement Home when it quietly opened its doors this month.
The opening comes nearly a decade after St. John officials first began courting state and federal authorities to build the facility here. Many parishes, including St. Bernard and St. Tammany, vied for the $20 million retirement home. But, in 2001, St. John the Baptist Parish’s central location between New Orleans and Baton Rouge won out.
A ceremony to mark the opening of the home, a federal-state project geared to provide room and board and medical services for disabled and chronically ill veterans, will be held this summer, center officials said.
Jon Salter, the home’s administrator, said once the 156-bed facility is fully operational, 156 full-time employees will be hired, creating more jobs for parish residents. Parish President Nickie Monica has called the home a boon for St. John because of its potential economic impact and prestige.
Said Natalie Robottom, the parish’s chief administrative officer: “This is just the beginning. I’m so glad to see it come to fruition. To see it opening is something you live to see. It’s just exciting to have such a facility in St. John.”
An estimated 250,000 veterans live within 40 miles of New Orleans, according to the most recent census, parish officials have said.
Currently, the facility is home to three veterans and about 50 more are on a waiting list, Salter said. He plans to admit about three residents per week, as part of a graduated plan.
Marlene Vicknair said she submitted an application for her husband, Gene, when she heard construction had begun in May 2005.
“This building was like it was dropped from the sky and it was meant for him,” she said. “It dropped at the right place, at the right time. Five minutes from my house.”
The federal government paid 65 percent of the construction costs for the 93,000-square-foot retirement home; the state paid the rest.
With four wings, a library, chapel, barber shop and pharmacy, Salter said the home plans to practice a different type of long-term care for veterans.
“It’s not your typical nursing home. We are making things more home-like,” he said, adding that plants and animals will later be brought into the building.
The fifth of its kind in the state, the retirement home is nestled near a planned National Guard Readiness Center, scheduled to open in May, and an outpatient clinic for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Southeast Louisiana Veterans Healthcare System, scheduled to be completed early next year.
Land for the Southeast Louisiana War Veterans Retirement Home was donated by St. John.
To be eligible for residency in the retirement home, Salter said, veterans must complete an admissions process and be a wartime veteran with a minimum of 90 days active duty.
Vicknair was stationed at Fort Polk in 1968 as a criminal investigator for the Army. With his cancer in remission for more than four years, his family wanted better medical care for him, and turned to the retirement home.
“This is where he will get the greatest care,” his wife said. “I was being selfish keeping him home.”
Ellie
By Victoria St. Martin - The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune via AP
Posted : Saturday Jun 23, 2007 11:01:14 EDT
RESERVE, La. — Gene Vicknair was the first veteran admitted to the Southeast Louisiana War Veterans Retirement Home when it quietly opened its doors this month.
The opening comes nearly a decade after St. John officials first began courting state and federal authorities to build the facility here. Many parishes, including St. Bernard and St. Tammany, vied for the $20 million retirement home. But, in 2001, St. John the Baptist Parish’s central location between New Orleans and Baton Rouge won out.
A ceremony to mark the opening of the home, a federal-state project geared to provide room and board and medical services for disabled and chronically ill veterans, will be held this summer, center officials said.
Jon Salter, the home’s administrator, said once the 156-bed facility is fully operational, 156 full-time employees will be hired, creating more jobs for parish residents. Parish President Nickie Monica has called the home a boon for St. John because of its potential economic impact and prestige.
Said Natalie Robottom, the parish’s chief administrative officer: “This is just the beginning. I’m so glad to see it come to fruition. To see it opening is something you live to see. It’s just exciting to have such a facility in St. John.”
An estimated 250,000 veterans live within 40 miles of New Orleans, according to the most recent census, parish officials have said.
Currently, the facility is home to three veterans and about 50 more are on a waiting list, Salter said. He plans to admit about three residents per week, as part of a graduated plan.
Marlene Vicknair said she submitted an application for her husband, Gene, when she heard construction had begun in May 2005.
“This building was like it was dropped from the sky and it was meant for him,” she said. “It dropped at the right place, at the right time. Five minutes from my house.”
The federal government paid 65 percent of the construction costs for the 93,000-square-foot retirement home; the state paid the rest.
With four wings, a library, chapel, barber shop and pharmacy, Salter said the home plans to practice a different type of long-term care for veterans.
“It’s not your typical nursing home. We are making things more home-like,” he said, adding that plants and animals will later be brought into the building.
The fifth of its kind in the state, the retirement home is nestled near a planned National Guard Readiness Center, scheduled to open in May, and an outpatient clinic for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Southeast Louisiana Veterans Healthcare System, scheduled to be completed early next year.
Land for the Southeast Louisiana War Veterans Retirement Home was donated by St. John.
To be eligible for residency in the retirement home, Salter said, veterans must complete an admissions process and be a wartime veteran with a minimum of 90 days active duty.
Vicknair was stationed at Fort Polk in 1968 as a criminal investigator for the Army. With his cancer in remission for more than four years, his family wanted better medical care for him, and turned to the retirement home.
“This is where he will get the greatest care,” his wife said. “I was being selfish keeping him home.”
Ellie