LARSON ANNOUNCES $21.9 MILLION GRANT FOR ROCKY HILL VETERANS' HOME

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 26, 2006

LARSON ANNOUNCES $21.9 MILLION GRANT FOR ROCKY HILL VETERANS? HOME

HARTFORD ? U.S. Representative John B. Larson (CT-1) today announced a grant for $21.9 million for construction of a new Veterans? Home building. These resources would procure a new, state-of-the-art, 125 bed, long-term adult care facility.

?Our veterans have given so much to our nation and it is time for us to give back to them,? said Larson. ?They deserve the most up-to-date facilities and the highest quality of care. I?m pleased to announce this grant which will provide Connecticut?s veterans with a facility worthy of their sacrifices. This new facility is especially important with more soldiers in need of treatment returning home each day from operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.?

The grant was awarded as part of the State Home Program, a partnership between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the states to construct, acquire, or renovate nursing home, domiciliary, and/or adult day health facilities. States homes, like the one in Rocky Hill, are owned and operated by the state. This grant will provide 65% of the estimated cost of the project.

Congressman Larson has continually voiced to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs his support for the facility and worked to ensure it was a top priority for the VA. This project is part of an aggressive capital improvement plan which included a $2,990,000 federal grant announced earlier this month to replace the facility?s water system, which was constructed in the 1930s and caused a major water main break in 2003.

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