Ribbon cutting date set for veterans home

State Veterans Home Director Ed Harries told members of the Southeast Tennessee Veterans Home Council late Thursday afternoon, barring any unforeseen obstacles, that will be the date for the ceremony.

“We are in the final stages, polishing things up, finishing things that need to be remedied, and we are right there,” Harries told the Cleveland Daily Banner after the meeting. “We’ve got a hard target for that June 22 date, and we are charging toward it.”

The veterans home has been a project many years in the making, with the groundbreaking of the land off Westland Drive SW held on Aug. 21, 2019. Since then, work on the 108-bed facility has been ongoing, with some delays along the way.

“This has been a very complex project; a large project,” the state director said. “We also went through a lot of things with COVID and supply chain issues, so it’s been challenging, but we have been up to the challenge.”

The ribbon cutting will signify the opening of the facility, but the veterans home will not accept residents until the second or third week in July, Harries said.

“Again, I need to be very flexible about that [date] because it  depends on the capability of the staff and whether they are up to the challenge at that point,” he explained. “We’ve got a lot of training to do, and a lot of people who have never worked together before, in a strange building with lots of new stuff, so we want to get everything ironed out before we start taking anyone in.”

Courtney Washington, the veterans home administrator, said hiring is already in the beginning stages for the facility.

“It’s taken some time, but this community has been so dedicated to making this happen,” she said. “I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

“We are starting to bring staff on, and we are very excited to bring our first residents in and are so excited to show off the facility to the community,” Washington added.

Presently, potential applicants can visit the homes’s website to check into possible employment. Go to https://tsvh.org/careers/ and scroll down to Click Here to View Open Positions, go to View Current Openings, then check the openings for Cleveland.

“[Washington’s] been a guiding force there at the building, and her next six to eight weeks … instead of there being a big empty building, there is going to be a lot of activity, and she will have a lot of adapting to do, but she is up to the challenge,” Harries said.

There have been 260 already who have registered for the waiting list, and those who will be moving into the facility will enter in stages.

“We’ll be opening a little at a time,” Washington explained. Harries said the initial phase will include only a few residents, “to bring our staff in and get them conditioned to the building.”

Dave Hall, SETVHC chairman, said the announcement of the ribbon cutting was something he was excited to hear Thursday.

“It’s fantastic news and this is the best news we have had since the groundbreaking in August 2019,” he said.

Harries said he was as excited to make the announcement Thursday afternoon as the council was to hear it. Many applauded when he made the announcement.

“This has been one of my focus projects for some 15 years now … getting the funding in place, the locations, making everything happen down to the theme and design,” Harries said.

The veterans home will have woodland lodge theme, which Harries said “we try to integrate them into the community which we do with all of our homes. We want them to be a part of the community and show them the culture of the community.

“Our staff at that point will still be in a skeleton level, so we won’t be in a fully operational level, and some areas will be closed off, but I think anyone who will walk into that facility will say, ‘Wow!’” Harries said.

Tours will be a part of the ribbon cutting for the portion of the facility completely open then. There will be no tours leading up to the June 22 date.