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County officials report progress on VA nursing-home grant after Washington visits
Summary
Collier County delegation said federal meetings in Washington strengthened the county’s position for a Department of Veterans Affairs construction grant for a new veterans nursing home, and county officials reported they are ranked in the priority pool for new facility construction.
County officials and commissioners reported May 13 that a recent delegation to Washington, D.C., yielded positive signals for a Collier County veterans nursing home construction grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
John Mullins, the county’s director of communications, government and public affairs, told the commission the VA is currently operating under a continuing resolution that left the construction grant program with roughly $160 million in available funds this fiscal year. "We're looking for $74,000,000 out of that pot," Mullins said, and he described Collier County as the only facility in the priority category for new construction (priority 1.3) in the current allocation.
Chair Saunders and commissioners described a series of high-level meetings in Washington during which federal officials indicated Collier County ranks highly for funding. John Mullins said the VA prioritization placed remediation of existing facilities first, and new construction (the county’s category) later; Collier County was the top-ranked applicant in the new-construction group. "So if you just take the 20,000,000, let's say, off the top of the hundred and $60,000,000 allocation, there should be around a hundred and $40,000,000 left by the time they get to 1.3," Mullins told the board.
Mullins said the county’s request seeks about $74 million, and that the county had already progressed design work so that, if the grant is approved, construction could begin quickly: "...we may have a groundbreaking sometime early next year, possibly."
Commissioner Castro and others praised the county’s lobbying effort in Washington and noted unusually receptive meetings with senior federal staff, which they said increased optimism about the project’s prospects. Commissioners emphasized the delegation’s coordinated message and thanked staff for arranging broad access to federal officials during the trip.
No final federal award had been announced at the May 13 meeting; Mullins said an official notification from the VA could arrive in the third or fourth quarter of 2025. Commissioners directed staff to continue follow-up with federal partners and to move forward with design work pending final award decisions.
This briefing was informational; no binding county commitment or appropriations vote took place at the May 13 meeting.
