Just when it seemed proponents of a nursing home for military veterans in Bowling Green were nearing the finish line of their marathon-like quest to get the facility built, that finish line has been moved again.

The culprit this time: inflation.

In the works for more than a decade and pushed by local veterans’ groups and state legislators, the nursing home cleared such hurdles as securing federal and state funding and finding an acceptable site to finally reach the bid phase.

Only to hit another hurdle.

“Everything was in place, and the design work was done,” said state Rep. Michael Meredith, R-Brownsville. “We went through the bid process, and those numbers were roughly $18 million over budget.”

As a result, “we’re in limbo right now,” said Malcolm Cherry, a longtime proponent of the nursing home.

Cherry, commander of Bowling Green’s American Legion Post 23, said: “It’s unexpected that the bids came in that high. I guess the cost of everything made it that high.”

Projected in 2015 to cost about $30 million, the 60-bed facility got an extra $2.5 million from the state in 2020 for design and pre-construction.

That spending cleared the way for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to approve last year its $19.5 million share of the projected cost, which was added to the state’s allocation of $10.5 million to come up with what was believed to be adequate funding to build the long-awaited facility.

But that was before supply chain and materials costs led to what the U.S. Census Bureau calculates is a 23% jump in construction costs from 2019 until 2021.

“We’re seeing unprecedented inflation in materials and labor,” said Meredith, who has worked on the nursing home project for most of his 12 years in the General Assembly. “I don’t know that we’ve ever seen the kind of cost increases we’re seeing now.”

Meredith said only two bids were received. Both were in the $50 million range to build the facility on a donated 25-acre site in the Kentucky Transpark.

Not that Meredith is ready to throw in the towel on a project that veterans’ advocates like Cherry and the late Robert Spiller have worked on since at least 2010.

“This is a hiccup in the process,” he said. “We’ve made it through other roadblocks. I think we’ll make it through this one.”

This time, though, the way forward isn’t clear.

“Everyone is fully engaged, looking for a solution,” Meredith said. “The state House and Senate members are engaged, along with the governor’s office. We’ve been in contact with legislators at the federal level, but we haven’t yet found an exact solution.

“It may be that the state pays all the difference. The Veterans Administration itself can’t do anything now that money has been allocated. Congress will have to act to allow more than a 10% variance in the allocation and actually put forth some additional dollars.”

At the very least, a groundbreaking for the facility that was expected to happen this summer will be delayed until extra money can be found or the project can be re-bid to see if the cost can be brought down.

State Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, said the increase in the state’s budget reserve trust fund to $1.75 billion means money is available for the state to make up the shortfall, if legislators vote to allocate the funds.

One longtime advocate of the nursing home, Ray Biggerstaff, believes the extra money should come from the federal level.

“The president seems to be giving away money everywhere,” said the 78-year-old Biggerstaff, who spent 30 years teaching in the Department of Health and Safety at Western Kentucky University. “Why not spend a few more million to take care of veterans?”

Meredith said a compromise that involves additional investment of both federal and state dollars is his ideal solution.

Regardless, Biggerstaff said the fight to get the nursing home built is far from over.

“We will get that funding,” he said. “One thing we have to keep in mind is that we have about 40,000 veterans in the 20 counties in southcentral Kentucky. I would hate to upset those veterans.

“We’re not going to quit or back off. We’ve invested too much time and effort.”

Mark Bowman, executive director of the Office of Kentucky Veterans Centers, is in step with Biggerstaff.

“We’ve incurred cost overruns,” he said. “But I think that’ll be dealt with. From our perspective, it’s moving forward.”

– Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.