Vermont Veterans’ Home Likely To Receive $1.2 M Grant For KitchenI Renovation

By  Keith Whitcomb Jr.

The Vermont Veterans’ Home stands a good chance of receiving nearly $1 million from the federal government to renovate its aging kitchen.

Se. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., released a statement last week saying the Department of Veterans Affairs has placed the Vermont Veterans’ Home on a priority list for a federal matching grant and will likely get funding.

“The kitchen is from the 1970s,” said Melissa Jackson, administrator of the Vermont Veterans’ Home. “Most of the equipment has outlived its useful life.”

The walk-in freezer, for example, is so old that if it were to break down there would be no way of finding replacement parts, meaning the home would have to rent freezers. Jackson said in addition to being equipped with the outdated equipment, the kitchen space itself is not laid out efficiently. Dry goods are stored on a lower floor, meaning the kitchen staff has to make numerous trips to retrieve simple items.

The Veterans’ Home kitchen serves 125 meals three times per day.

Jackson said the home applied for the grant a number of years ago. The federal government supplies 65 percent of the cost, with the state picking up the rest. The state had contributed $150,000, but this past legislative session brought that up to about $500,000, completing the match on the estimated $1.2 million project. This put it on the priority list, she said.

According to Jackson, the home is ranked sixth on the list.

Briggs said the projects ahead of The Vermont Veterans’ Home are: A facility in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, asking $1.8 million for a fire suppression system; a facility in Quincy, Illinois, asking $1.3 million for fire suppression; the state of Louisiana is asking for $326,000 for security camera, asbestos abatement, and fire detection; and a facility in Sulfur, Okla., requesting $4.7 million for mold abatement.

Jackson said she expects to know within the next two weeks whether the funds are awarded. If they are, the Veterans’ Home has until June to make sure the last pieces of its required paperwork are in order. If not, it can ask for a 180-day extension. Once the funds are released the home has to put the project out to bid. Jackson said it could be as long as a year before construction begins.

“I am committed to working with the state and the VA to ensure the veterans’ home can make these much-needed repairs,” said Sanders in a release. “The men and women who have served our country in uniform deserve quality care in a safe home.”

The Vermont Veterans Home has been faced with financial difficulties for the past several years and has relied on the state to help make up a $5 million a year budget gap, Jackson said in an interview with VTDigger.

The home recently cut the number of vacant beds for vets from 171 to 130 in order to reduce costs. Jackson says the home pays $852,000 in a nursing home bed tax to the state. The elimination of 41 beds saves the home $201,000 a year.

In addition, the home will eliminate 19 staff positions. Thirteen of those jobs are vacant; six staffers will be laid off.

The cuts will save the home about $1 million a year.