OMAHA — The vets who live in the Eastern Nebraska Veterans Home in Bellevue are about to get a little more elbow room.
State officials will kick off a two-year, $9.4 million expansion project with a groundbreaking ceremony at 4 p.m. Tuesday. Gov. Pete Ricketts is expected to attend.
The 25,000-square-foot addition will add a net 24 beds at the facility, which currently has 101 residents and a capacity of 120, said John Hilgert, director of the Nebraska Department of Veterans Affairs. The department runs four veterans homes across the state.
The addition also will create space for the home to offer adult day health care for 12 veterans, which will allow them to receive medical care, personal care such as bathing, and meals during the day.
“This will be the first time the state system has adult day health care,†Hilgert said.
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The Eastern Nebraska Veterans Home opened in July 2007, replacing the Thomas Fitzgerald Veterans Home in northwest Omaha. Its four existing wings include 60 beds for skilled-nursing care, 30 beds for assisted living, and beds for patients with dementia.
Hilgert said the first phase will add 30 new skilled-nursing beds, and space for the adult day health care program. During the second phase, the 30 two-person assisted-living rooms will be converted into 24 private rooms, also for assisted living.
The home also plans to boost its staffing from 160 to 183 employees, adding registered nurses, certified nursing assistants and kitchen employees.
When the home was designed, engineers left space for future expansion. Hilgert said Ricketts requested, and received, $3.3 million in state capital improvement funds — 35% of the project cost — from the Legislature in 2019 after hearing about the need during a meeting with veterans from Douglas and Sarpy counties.
That money allowed Nebraska to seek the remaining 65% ($6.1 million) through a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs grant program. The federal grant was awarded in May 2020.
Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue, whose district includes the Eastern Nebraska Veterans Home, said she was pleased to see the project get started.Â
"I am proud to see this expansion to better provide area veterans with high-quality, cost-effective and comprehensive services," she said in a statement. "Providing support and care for our American heroes is a noble and important cause."
Nebraska’s veterans homes date to 1887, when the state opened a care home for Civil War veterans on 650 acres in Grand Island. That home was in use until 2019, when a new facility opened in Kearney.
The state added additional homes in Norfolk, in 1963; in Scottsbluff, in 1975; and in Omaha, in 1980. The Norfolk Veterans Home moved to a new facility in 2001.
The Omaha home was in the former Douglas County Hospital Annex, an old building at 156th Avenue and West Maple Road. It closed when the Bellevue facility opened, at 40th Street and Capehart Road.
The Eastern Nebraska Veterans Home features 15 acres of gardens, walking paths and a gazebo outdoors. Inside, the facility has a library, computers and Wi-Fi access.
Veterans who served on active duty and received an honorable or general discharge are eligible to live in the veterans homes, provided they have lived in Nebraska for at least two years during their lifetimes. Military spouses, widowed spouses, and Gold Star spouses and parents also may live there.
All four Nebraska homes have lengthy waiting lists. Hilgert said each was forced to stop new admissions for a time because of COVID-19 health restrictions, but all are now admitting new residents again.
“The past couple of years have been rough,†Hilgert said. “We started taking some terrible losses. With this groundbreaking, it’s kind of a psychological turning of the corner.â€