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Mack confident Cape Coral VA clinic coming

$131 million for facility still needs Congressional funding OK

Written by: Denes Husty III | Publication: Fort Myers News-Press

November 19, 2008 -

CAPE CORAL - Despite a struggling economy, federal officials don't foresee a problem in finding the $131 million needed to build a Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Cape Coral.

The funding is the next step now that President George W. Bush has signed the bill for the clinic in the northwest part of the city.

Congress has to vote to put the money for building the clinic in the 2009-10 federal budget.

"I don't foresee that funding will be a problem because it had the unanimous support of Congress. We are optimistic that it will be fully funded," said Stephanie DuBois, press secretary for U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV, R-Fort Myers.

And the congressman, she said, "will be working to make sure it's fully funded."

Congress will start on the annual appropriations bill next spring and the spending package, including money for the clinic, would go into effect Oct. 1, 2009, DuBois said.

The new clinic, according to VA records, would serve 202,000 veterans in Southwest Florida, including 124,000 retired and active servicemen and women in Mack's district.

The new clinic will be almost three times the size of the 71,000-square-foot VA clinic in Fort Myers and will offer more services, including minor surgery, advanced imaging, nuclear medicine and vascular Doppler ultrasound.

"We're very excited to offer the opportunity of expanded services to the veterans of Cape Coral and Southwest Florida," said Faith Belcher, a VA spokeswoman.

Plans for the new clinic should be finished by May and groundbreaking should take place late next year or early 2010, she said.

The clinic, which is to be built on 30 acres at Diplomat Parkway and Corbett Road, should be finished in 2011, Belcher said.

Currently, the only options local veterans have for health care include the Fort Myers clinic or Bay Pines, the VA hospital in St. Petersburg.

City Councilman Bill Deile, a retired Army colonel, said the clinic will be closer for Cape Coral veterans who need health care and the expanded services will benefit veterans from throughout Southwest Florida.

Cape resident Conrad Casper, a 74-year-old Marine Corps veteran, said because of limited services at the Fort Myers clinic, he has to go elsewhere if he needs a specialist for certain procedures.

"With the new clinic, I could probably get what I need right there," he said.

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