State vets home to get a facelift

Rocky Hill - Rainwater seeps through the roof and shorts out the wiring in the State Veterans Home buildings. Temperatures in the rooms and hallways quickly climb in the summer months since air-conditioning is not installed throughout the wings. First-time visitors often ask, "What is that?" when they enter the men's bathroom and see a trough instead of a urinal.

Veterans have been living in "substandard conditions" at the home for a long time, according to the state Veterans Affairs commissioner.

"If you ask the people of Connecticut, 'Would you want veterans to live like this?' they would say no," Commissioner Linda Schwartz said Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has agreed to pay 65 percent of the $9.2 million cost to upgrade the four World War II-era residential buildings at the Rocky Hill campus. Connecticut competed against other states for a share of the federal stimulus money available through the department for improving facilities for veterans.

The four buildings, which house 380 veterans, need new roofs and gutters, modern bathrooms, fire sprinkler-system upgrades, centralized air-conditioning and modifications to make the buildings handicapped accessible.

The project is expected to take about a year to complete.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Wednesday she expects that the state's share of nearly $2.5 million will be approved when the state Bond Commission meets next week.

"Even in these times of financial difficulty, the state is doing its share to support these much-needed improvements," Rell said in a statement.

Schwartz called the funding "an opportunity to bring this place up to the 21st century." She said the improvements will "lift the veterans' spirits."

"This will be worthy of the veterans, that's the most important thing," she said.

Rell also proposed using $250,000 to rehabilitate five houses, located across the street from the State Veterans Home, to be used by veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan who need a temporary place to stay.

The houses, which are owned by the state, were built for staff working at the campus and then used for veterans but are now vacant. After the repairs are complete, the state plans to ask interested organizations and nonprofit groups to help furnish the houses.

Rell said during her time in office the state and federal government have jointly invested $42 million in the Rocky Hill campus, the most new funding for improvements at the facility in more than six decades.

A 125-bed residential health center opened in 2008, the same year work was completed on a water distribution system to supply reliable domestic and fire-protection water to the residential buildings.