Lakeland Currents.

Your public affairs program for North Central Minnesota.

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Welcome to Lakeland Currents.

I'm your host Todd Haugan.

For our Currents show today our guests are with the new Bemidji Veterans Home.

The new Bemidji Veterans Home.

One issue I want to talk about a little bit and I've seen different names for the facility but they are the new administrator for the Bemidji Veteran's home, Kevin Gish is with us for our show today as is Scotty Allison, the former Beltrami County Veterans Services officer.

Gentlemen welcome to Lakeland Currents and we're glad to have you here.

Thanks Todd, good to be here.

Well, Kevin first the new Bemidji Veterans Home, I've seen it online described as the Minnesota Veterans Home-Bemidji.

Does it have an official name at this point?

It is the Bemidji Veterans Home.

The reason we refer to it as the Minnesota Veterans Home Bemidji is to make emphasis that it is a Minnesota State facility.

It's one of three new facilities that are being built by the State with both Federal and State dollars but it will be a State Veterans Home meaning that all the employees will be State employees.

What's the status of the Veterans Home right now Kevin?

The $64,000 question Todd.

It continues to move along.

Our general contractors are telling us it's 98% complete from a general construction perspective.

It is a large project.

It's 880,000 square feet almost all one level, 72 private rooms, private baths and it's been delayed on a number of occasions just because the number of surveys and regulations and requirements because it's going to be an unbelievably beautiful home.

I cannot wait to show it off, however it's got to be safe.

It's got to meet all the regulations not only State Department of Health regulations but the federal Veterans Administration regulations as well and that's what's leading to some of the delays but it's going to be incredible when we can open it.

Best guess currently when it might open?

So, opening has a few different meanings to us.

Opening is getting my staff in there which we anticipate in the next few weeks.

We anticipate at this time written in pencil that we will admit our first group of veterans mid-January, however, again that's pending any delays on, you know, electrical, fire marshall, Department of Health regulations and there's just a litany of things that we need to go through but that is our best estimate at this time.

The process to bring about the Bemidji Veterans Home was a lengthy one and a guy that has a lot to do with that is here with us today, Scotty Allison former Beltrami County Veteran Services officer currently retired.

Scotty welcome to Lakeland once again.

Thanks.

The process took 10 years?

Oh longer than that.

My memory serves me right it dates back to you know 2005-2007 era.

Some people in the community had an idea about, we should get a Veterans Home up here because number one we're geographically isolated from any other veterans home.

The nearest one being Fergus Falls which is about 150 miles away from here.

Plus at that time we had approximately 30,000 veterans living in the Northwestern, the north I call it the Northwestern sector of Minnesota but you take the Beltrami County and the 15 counties that are up this way.

We had about 30,000 veterans.

So, they were, there was nothing here for them and then you had also, you know, the travel time to either Fargo or to Minneapolis or St.

Cloud, the hospitals.

So, we had a really good story to tell about why we should put a veterans home here in Beltrami County specifically in Bemidji.

There was a lot of discussion back in the time to put it elsewhere.

There was some people that thought it should go into Bagley.

There was some people who thought it should go into Northhome, you know, but it ended up being Bemidji because quite truthfully we have the great facility of Sanford, we also have the Bemidji CBOC here the Community Based Outreach Clinic.

So, we have a lot of things we needed for our veterans that would be residing in the veterans home.

This was a joint effort, a huge project involving a lot of elected officials wasn't it Scotty?

It was.

So, let me go back in time, I mean the the stalwart person who really had the lead for most of this was Joe Venne.

Joe was the spokesman for this and if you know anything about Joe he was the one who brought when he was the director of the juvenile center here, he was the one that brought that facility here.

So, Joe had a lot of experience in gaining resources and talking people into building a facility.

So, he was the one that was kind of the impetus behind it all.

But then another gentleman who was kind of big in this was a gentleman named Ralph Morris.

He was the one that could be able to do all, he was part of all the studies that landed themselves to show that Bemidji had a great need for the veterans home and then third it was Jim Luckachik, one of the County Commissioners.

He became the chair of the board for the veterans home and he was the main lead for that.

So, I got hired in 2012 as the County Veteran Service Officer.

One of the missions I was given and one of the reasons why I was hired was to get going with this project, to make it a reality, which required, obviously a lot of to the cities, going to St. Paul and testifying, talking to politicians, gaining support and over the course of that time so which was I think in 19 yes 2019.

There was a lot of politicians over those years.

Whether they are Democrat whether Republican.

You know, all of our politicians in this area were very supportive of getting the Vets Home.

It just took a matter of when the legislature was right to do that and it became right for the legislature to do it when there was other cities that were competing for the veterans home.

Then it be a became a consortium with Montevideo and then Preston.

I believe that's where the other one's at Preston.

When we gained the political advantage of those two sites and the legislators that support those two sites and then with our legislators then it became much more reasonable for the Minnesota legislature to support building veterans homes, new ones in the State of Minnesota.

Additionally, we had some bed spacing that allowed three facilities to be built.

The federal law does require that only so many bed spaces are given to veterans homes in a given state and that's dependent on the population of the veterans.

So, the number of veterans in the State of Minnesota like most states is actually declining.

The load for recent vets in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you know, multiple tours, the number of vets has just steadily been decreasing but the requirement for vets homes has kind of been going up because the population has aged that much more.

So, that's why we were able to get three veterans homes in the State of Minnesota.

Plus a lot of support.

But in the local area, you know, Matt Bliss and so on, they really did help quite a bit and you know, we had, whether it was the Senate or whether it was the House we had a lot of support.

Nobody ever begrudged building a veterans home.

That wasn't the issue.

It was always about money.

All three communities that you mentioned are getting veterans homes too, those are being constructed right?

Montevideo, Preston?

They are.

Bemidji's again will be a 72 bed facility, all private room, private bath, that's the same footprint that Montevideo is getting and Preston is a 54 bed.

Yes, I was literally on a call this morning as we are all checking in with each other on where we are and our progress.

Right.

Scotty, you mentioned a lot of names, folks we both know, you know, we wanted to, I definitely wanted to have a show about the veterans home here on Lakeland Currents and it can get difficult to narrow down the list of people that you're going to be chatting with.

You were a big part of this and veteran services officers are huge for veterans in each county.

What does a veteran service officer do and what in your background brought you to this line of work?

So, I wish Shane was here today, he's the current County Veteran Service Officer but he has another thing he has to take care of, training.

So, the County Veterans Service Officers in the State of Minnesota are required by law.

There's 87 veteran service officers, and 87 counties.

The State law does require that and any assistance they need to support veterans but really they are kind of like the journeyman of support activities.

So, whether it's doing pensions, whether it's doing applications for compensation and medical applications, they just do a lot of things.

So, of course when we were trying to get the vets home up here, we had the support of the Northwest Association of County Veteran Service Officers plus the Minnesota CVSO Association.

So, at every level we had great support for that.

So, I would just say that if you're a veteran and you haven't visited a County Veteran Service Officer you probably ought to do that, at least if nothing else to get your discharge recorded in your county.

So, if something happens to you then your family can know where to go and get the documentation that's required to get veteran support.

Some veterans don't, maybe don't even know that there are Veteran Services Officers.

A number of states don't have them as I understand it.

Going back in time now about, you know, a little over 50% of the states do but about 50% of the states don't.

Some of them have it centralized, you know, wherever their Department of Veterans Affairs is located.

That's kind of how they do it but in other states there's just nothing.

So, the veterans kind of have to deal with local regional offices and depending where you live the regional office may not, even might not even be one in your state.

As, you know, a matter of fact the veterans from here typically deal with the Fargo regional office because of the way they've kind of broke up the State of Minnesota.

So, like the northwestern sector goes to Fargo and then the, if you go to the east Duluth area and stuff like that, they end up going to to Minneapolis.

So, then, of course, you got St.

Cloud and that area that all goes to Minneapolis.

So, the main regional offices are in Minneapolis and Fargo in our area but you should if you're a veteran regardless of the area, you should go in and see a veteran service officer and if not a veteran service officer then at least one of the supporting veteran service officers that work for the veterans organizations.

I mean like the Disabled American Veterans, American Legion, Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs and they have trained people at the different Regional Offices.

They go through basically the same training as County Veteran Service Officers.

In some cases their training is enhanced because of what they do.

So, you know go see them.

Right, most of your military service was spent in the Army Scotty?

I did three years in the Navy, then I did 28 years on active duty in the Army and I did two and a half years in the Reserve Forces, here in Minnesota with a unit down in Brainerd, Minnesota.

The Alpha Company 367th Engineers.

Well, thank you for your service and thank you for all those years that you spent as a Veteran Services Officer and your hard work on this worthy project.

Right.

The Bemidji Veterans Home is going to have a lot of different features.

Right Kevin?

Absolutely, it's going to be again, I can't wait to show it off.

The basic layout Todd is four households named after area counties.

We've got our Beltrami, Cass, Hubbard, and Itasca and I've promised my friends in Clearwater County that we will get some room named after our friends in Clearwater County.

John Ruder and that will have 18 private rooms, private baths.

Each household will have its own dining area with its own kitchen for a made to order breakfast.

If the vet wants to come out at 9:00 a.m. and bacon and eggs, that will be prepared there and in an intimate setting in that maximum of 18 residents in that household.

There are some things that the households will share but most of them are fairly self-contained.

They have their own living room.

There's a quiet room that families can have to visit outside some of the melee that can be the sounds amongst a home like that.

Each household has a spa with a whirlpool tub which can be used for therapeutic as well as relaxation purposes.

It's, there's a lot of glass in the building.

It's built to have a Northwoods feel to it.

Some people have said "are there going to be stuffed fish on the walls"?

I said, well I don't think we're ruling that out but right now it does not.

It's just a really lovely place.

ceiling that I'm encouraging you, Steve Jewett and others, you know, the VFW, the Legion, the DAV come and have your meetings out there, you know.

Pandemic, you know, not withstanding if there's safety considerations obviously that is first but the auxiliary, come and have your meetings out there so the Vets can participate and be there and feel a part of their veteran community.

That's extremely important and we will have the facilities to make that happen.

Kevin that would have to be after the formal opening I would assume?

Absolutely Todd.

Yes, the formal opening now because we are looking at a mid-winter opening for actual residence, the grand opening so to speak will be in the spring, where we've obviously got a lot of legislative, Governor, our State Senators, House Representatives they will all wish to be there and we will wish to have them there to celebrate this.

All this groundwork that Scotty, Ralph and Joe and others that did so many years ago is going to be, it's going to come to a really nice fruition.

It's going to be an absolute piece of pride for Bemidji.

Can I say something?

Go right ahead Scotty.

So, you know back in a little bit in time when it became looked like it was going to be a yeah this could be more than, you know, just kicking the old can down the road until we get a vets home.

We were asked by the State Legislature to raise matching dollars.

So, if the local communities would come up with monies then that would make it much more palatable for the State Legislature to provide monies because what was going to happen was the Federal Government, when we proposed building a veterans home here, when it went to the Federal government any monies that we raised would be matched by the Federal government to a 2/3 ratio so 1/3-2/3 ratio.

So, for every dollar we would raise they would raise three and I say all this because as we started the fundraising activity myself, Joe Venne and Jim Lukachick, we would travel around to the various counties trying to get them to kick in money, to the various service organizations throughout the area where we were talking about.

Basically, from you know way up north, Lake of the Woods area, Baudette, over to, you know, the far western go out to these different organizations when they would have meetings or county board meetings and try to talk them into helping us with the the funds but Kay Mack, when she was the board chair, not the board chair the County Manager for Beltrami County, they had a meeting and Beltrami County came up with a million dollars.

So, we were ready with that, that was $3 million when we went to the federal government.

Then, some of the other counties started kicking in.

We had a total of six counties provide fundings.

We had numerous service organizations, you know, the VFWs, the Legions, the auxiliaries, you know, the DAVs and then we had private citizens provide funds, you know, hey Scotty I want to drop off $50 bucks or you know $250 bucks and every dollar was getting matched and we also had some trusts, you know, some local businesses, the banks and I forget what's that big one there's a big trust fund here in town, the Neilson Foundation provided a big hunk of money.

So, we raised a total of it was I believe around about $2.3 million between all the different entities which meant that already we were sitting at, you know, 9 or 8 million dollars with the Federal government.

So, it became much more reasonable then for the legislature to kick in money and then take that big, all of it together because it had to come in as one big project.

So, all three homes came in as one big project to the Department of Veterans Affairs at the Federal level and that's when it was approved.

Ultimately, also with accelerating costs because of a lot of reasons.

When we got an approval was 2019 what hit then, Covid hit.

So, you know a lot of things kind of got a little bit messy.

Construction costs accelerated, supply chains were damaged, there was just a lot of things that happened.

So, the State after we had submitted to the Federal government, if we were short, any funds, then the only way to get those funds were either raise it locally or get it through the State legislature The State Legislature pushed by the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs and Commissioner Herke.

I mean they pushed it.

So, that we continue to get funding that we could build the home.

So, that when I say it was Ralph, or it was Joe or it was Jim, or it was Scotty, who knew there was tons of folks who were actively involved at that point.

So, I don't, you say Scotty you had a big piece of this, that may be so, I had a piece of it but there was a lot of other people that had a lot of pieces to it.

Sure.

Kevin, the Veterans Home is going to be for men and women obviously.

Absolutely.

Plenty of female veterans this year.

It's and trending more that think of when they picture a veteran's home in their heads but I can tell you that the youngest veteran at one of our existing facilities is a female in her 40's.

So, what you have to be and Scotty knows this far better than I do but it's pretty simple to be eligible.

You have to be an honorably discharged veteran, of any of the branches of the US Armed Services.

You have to serve at least 180 days of active service or be discharged for injury or illness etc.

before that time and too be a resident of the State of Minnesota.

That is it.

Because of that and as Scotty said, a lot of people are choosing thankfully to get their paperwork in working with the County Veteran Service Officers etc.

but we do have it this time and I don't want this number to scare anybody because it's actually a success story.

We have 265 people on our wait list to get into that home to a 72-bed home.

If we can staff it and that's probably a whole another story or or discussion to have but not all those folks are ready to come in today.

We had a discussion before we went on air about an individual that I think you both know that is on the list to get in but isn't in need of nursing home level care yet and that's wonderful and that's success but the home will be available when that person moves up on the the roster to be offered a bed.

So, the the home itself is not an old folks home.

That's what some people call it.

Oh, you know it's the old vet's home, that's not what it is.

It's really a medical facility if you think about it.

Absolutely and you have to meet the requirements for certain living functions before you're allowed to go in there.

Now, as far as what veterans can go in there?

All veterans are treated equally going into the Veterans Home.

Meaning it's all based upon when do they submit the application.

Also, it's not based upon priority of need.

It's mainly based upon because the accepted rule is that anybody that makes it onto the list and makes it through the list has they have the need to be in that Veterans Home.

So, you can't say a person with this disease versus this one should get into the Vets Home, that's not how they do it in the State of Minnesota.

I don't believe that's how they do it in all the other Vets Homes in the different states.

Those veterans that are admitted to the home can bring their spouse?

Let me answer that this way.

Spouses are eligible by federal law, however the State and Scotty mentioned Commissioner Herke who is now retired, we are looking for a new Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner.

Commissioner Herke had a number of 10%.

He wanted no know more than 10% spouses in these veterans homes.

So, we are managing our list accordingly.

They are all private rooms, private baths.

So, husbands and wives will not move in together into the same room.

We may be able to arrange being neighbor, depending on how our rooms are filled in the facility but to answer your question, yes they can move in but as Scotty was noting it's all on date time stamp of when you apply but often as I've seen on our list, husbands and wives apply at the same time.

So, they are right next to each other on the list.

We already have in our initial 20 to 24 which is what we're going to admit to get through, all the necessary surveys, Federal recognition first and foremost.

We have a couple of couples, so to speak on that initial group and the husband's saying I'm not moving in without my wife.

So, move me down and we will accommodate that obviously.

So, admission is based on need given the condition of any given veteran?

It can?

No, it's not based on condition of need because the needs have to be there anyway.

It's just basically you put your name on the list.

You go through the list and then you come to the top of the list and you're offered a room at the the facility.

Any veteran can do that?

Any veteran can do that.

So, I mean, you know, you may find some veterans who were combat wounded who have significant needs for that home but let's say it comes to that point, well, they have to put their name on the list.

They don't automatically get a buy to go into the nearest, next room that opens up.

They won't move above anybody else who was already on the list?

That's correct.

Can there be a point will those veterans be able to live in the home the rest of their natural life?

Actually, that is the plan.

That is the model.

So, unlike anything I've ever seen my healthcare leadership.

History with nursing homes specifically where there's an intense and understandable, you know, rehabilitate, get their meds squared away so they can go home.

They go to a less intense environment.

Maybe that's back to assisted living or back to their home.

That is not the goal.

Generally, we call this they will be there for their final tour.

Well, we're nearing the end of our show today.

I'm sure there's more things you each want to bring up.

When the opening is decided upon Kevin, I'm sure there will be a big celebration.

A big open house.

That people are welcome to attend?

Absolutely, we will shout it from the rooftops.

Until then though, I would respectfully ask folks to be enthusiastic but not overly enthusiastic.

Don't come and walk into the home.

Don't come and knock on the doors and want to see it because again it's an active construction zone still at this point.

We just can't open the doors and let the community come in.

Also, people are being so generous.

I get calls almost every day.

You know, dad has a lot of paintings of wartime memorabilia and he's got 200 books that he wishes to donate.

Our auxiliary club up in Baudette has made 50 quilts and we want to bring them down and at this point, I have to say I'm not saying no but I'm saying not now because literally we would be overwhelmed and the generosity is incredible.

I mean money is literally falling from the sky, Todd.

We get a check from the Hutchinson and I think it was the Hutchinson VFW.

I apologize if it's a Legion, I don't recall but the check that says buy TV's for every one of your veterans rooms.

Boom!

Democrats, Republicans everybody coalesce around the service for veterans and it's so refreshing to see.

You need more applicants for workers?

Always, yes, mn.gov.careers.

Every job that we have open will be posted there.

We are we're doing well with our recruiting but right now we're actually in our hiring phase to get our Direct Care folks for our first vets.

Scotty, briefly?

I would just say you got this whole home is for our veterans in this northern part of Minnesota, that it could be veterans from any part of Minnesota.

Gentlemen, thank you for being on Lakeland Currents for this edition of the show.

It's an exciting project can't wait to see it when it opens up.

Thank you very much Todd, great to be here.

Thanks.

Thank you Kevin Gish, Scotty Allison, hopefully we can chat again.

Thank you Todd.

Absolutely.

Thank you for watching Lakeland Currents.

I'm your host Todd Hogan, hopefully see you next time.