Fayetteville veterans answered the call. Let’s build them something nice.

I heard it all my life, even as a civilian.

When the president dials the red phone, it rings at Fort Liberty, the former Fort Bragg. 

I have seen visual evidence of what happens here when the nation comes calling. Such as when the mass deployment for the first Gulf War seemed to empty the city and move businesses to the brink, or end them.

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When the soldiers who answered that call come home — if they do — and become veterans and retirees, I would like to think that healthcare for them will be top-shelf. But I have heard a mix of stories, good and bad. Sounds like civilian healthcare, actually. 

This all has been particularly on my mind as I have watched along with the rest of the community the situation unfold at the State Veterans Home in Fayetteville, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility. It is located on Cochran Avenue, just down the hill from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Ramsey Street.

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Veterans Home residents, many elderly or disabled, and their families were informed in November that residents would need to leave the facility. Inspections had found the building had issues with topography, water intrusion, "significant repair needs and structural deficiencies,” according to a news release from the North Carolina Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, which oversees the home. 

The facility closed in January. The 85 residents have been relocated with assistance from the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, including financial support and transportation, along with continuum of care and services, according to Tammy Martin, communications director for NCDMVA.

A humble request

At a legislative committee hearing last month, Republican lawmakers seemed to spend a lot of effort assigning blame for how it all went down — which they, time and again, lay right at the feet of the Veterans Home officials who are part of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration. 

But Democratic State Sen. Val Applewhite countered in an interview last month with The Fayetteville Observer that the problems at the facility would have started before Cooper’s tenure as governor. 

From where I sit, the problem seems more structural than political. 

As signs the facility was falling into disrepair emerged in reports as early as two years ago, action seemed to get lost in a tangle of state agencies with no clear lines of authority, if we go by the pile of publicly available documents.

So, I do think looking deeper into what happened is important and warranted, and hopefully, a streamlined process may result. If we can keep the politics at bay.

But after that, I have one humble request: Build our veterans something nice here in Fayetteville — a top-flight facility. One befitting their service to our country.

A completely fresh start

I am talking about not simply patching up the old broken-down facility, but a new building, even at a new location.

Repairs are what have so far been talked about, but those patches are not cheap — more $17 million in estimated repairs and that’s a very conservative figure. That money might be better spent going toward a new building.

Recall, too, that one of the issues with the facility on Cochran Avenue is “topography.” When I say down the hill from the VA, I mean down.

Applewhite said after a site visit in February that the home is located in one of the city's lowest points and is subject to flooding. Leaks in the roof were first noticed after flooding from hurricanes Matthew and Florence, which happened in 2016 and 2018, Brian Pierce, the deputy secretary of DMVA, told legislators then.

“I question whether the facility should have been built there at all, but we’re far down the road from there,” said Applewhite, who is an Air Force veteran.

She is right: We are far down the road from that decision. But her comment speaks volumes about how we got here today in a facility that is just 25 years old.

Where we are now

As it stands now, the Military and Veterans Affairs has been instructed to “not to search for or move ahead with finding a location,” Martin said, in response to my question about whether the home could be rebuilt somewhere else in the city.  If a new facility is approved, the cost estimate would be in the range of $27 million, if it is built on the scale of the newer State Veterans Home in Kernersville, Martin said.

I asked her if the Fayetteville facility is built or repaired in the same location would that leave it subject to the problems that caused the home to close in the first place. Martin said the report from an architecture and engineering firm found “major concerns” with the topography.

“These concerns extend to the uncertainty of successful and long-term mitigation of the water problem associated with this particular location,” she said. “This location would require extensive improvements with the possibly of no guarantee of lasting results.”

A pre-pandemic visit

Last time I visited the State Veterans Home in Fayetteville was the Christmas season of 2019, when our church went there to sing carols and chat with residents. We took the kids. It was great.

Few knew then the COVID-19 pandemic was just around the corner, so that was the last Christmas fully like the old Christmases.

But I remember the veteran's home seemed inviting and pretty well-run. One could say my feelings were colored by the season. One could say it was that the staff knew company was coming. But the home was also named as one of the country's best nursing homes by Newsweek as recently as 2022.

The State Veterans Home in Fayetteville includes veterans from 19 counties. It is one of five full-service state veterans homes "with 449 skilled care beds and employing over 750 North Carolinians," according to the website for the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

The Kernersville home, in Forsyth County, opened in the fall, and I have it on good authority that it is a “knockout.” The facility is 111,300 square feet and has 120 beds, the second-highest capacity after Fayetteville. The beds are in private rooms with private baths — that’s a big deal.

By comparison, Fayetteville, with 150 beds, was double occupancy — two people to a room, and was 80,000 square feet, according to figures provided by the DMVA.

In Kernersville, there are wide courtyards and numerous amenities, including “a rehabilitation room with a therapy pool for residents receiving therapy," according to its website.

The veterans there are deserving, I’m sure.

But so are ours. 

Opinion Editor Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver or 910-486-3559.