Southcentral Kentucky is the area of the state most in need of a long-term care facility for veterans, according to a feasibility study released this month by the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs.

Local lawmakers and veterans advocates seized on the study to push for state funding of a veterans nursing home that would be built in Bowling Green on land in the Kentucky Transpark.

There are currently four state veterans homes in Kentucky, including the Radcliff Veterans Center, which is in the final phase of completion.

The state veterans affairs department authorized Public Consulting Group to review available data to determine which area of the state has the most need of veterans nursing home services, with each of the state’s eight Medicaid Managed Care Organized Regions ranked on a number of criteria, including projected population growth of veterans through 2043.

Accounting for all criteria, Region 4, a 20-county area that includes Warren and all its surrounding counties, had the highest demand for veterans nursing home services, according to the study.

“The study legitimizes what we were trying to do already by saying we are the area with the most need,” said state Rep. Michael Meredith, R-Brownsville, who along with Rep. Jim DeCesare, R-Bowling Green, pre-filed a bill last year for the current legislative session to secure $10.5 million in emergency state funding toward a veterans nursing facility in Bowling Green.

Seven other state representatives, including Rep. Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, Rep. Steve Riley, R-Glasgow, and Rep. Wilson Stone, D-Bowling Green, have joined the bill as co-sponsors. Companion legislation has been filed in the state Senate by Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, and Sen. C.B. Embry Jr., R-Morgantown.

“We’ve got a population of about 40,000 veterans in southcentral Kentucky that’s growing,” Meredith said. “The feasibility study looked at the growth in the population of veterans, and the need for those kind of facilities placed in the top four of every category they looked at.”

The proposed veterans nursing home is ranked 109th on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ list of priority projects, with close to $20 million in federal funding allocated, but the project has struggled to move forward in the Kentucky General Assembly.

Last year, the Office of Kentucky Veterans Centers’ five-year capital projects budget sent to Gov. Matt Bevin’s office included the Bowling Green facility, but Bevin did not include the funding in his state budget that he sent to legislators.

A House budget amendment restored the funding, but a subsequent Senate version of the budget did not, nor did the compromise version ultimately approved in April last year.

The current state legislation, which has been introduced in the House committee for veterans, military affairs and public protection and the Senate appropriations and revenue committee, calls for $10.5 million in state bond funds for the current fiscal year to accompany $19.5 million in federal funds toward what would be a 90-bed facility on land in the Transpark that was donated toward construction of the facility in 2015.

Dr. Ray Biggerstaff, a U.S. Army veteran from Bowling Green who served during the Vietnam War, has advocated for several years for a long-term care facility in Bowling Green dedicated to veterans.

The study and local support from state legislators for funding leave Biggerstaff more confident than ever that the veterans nursing home will be built.

“The feasibility study reinforces our need for this facility and basically points out that there is definitely more need down here than there is everywhere else,” Biggerstaff said.

“I certainly hope our state legislature will have the wisdom to vote collectively and positively to support this funding this time … we’ve got money at the federal level, and we’re just waiting for the OK and approval of the state to handle their one-third commitment and we’ll move up the national funding list,” he said. “It’s a shame we had to kind of be held up through politics, but I think everything’s back on track now.”

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