John Byrne
Nevada governor Brian Sandoval cuts the ribbon on the new Northern Nevada State Veterans Home Monday.
By Kayla Anderson, Sparks Tribune
Nevada Department of Veterans Services hosted a ribbon-cutting to celebrate the completion of the new Northern Nevada State Veterans Home Monday located on 36 Battle Born Way, near the Galletti Way and Kietzke Lane intersection and across from the DMV in Sparks.
This 102,000-square-foot facility contains 96 private rooms with their own bathrooms, common living spaces, and access to a “town center” complete with a beauty and barber shop, coffee shop, a dining hall that can seat up to 15 veterans, an activity center, sports bar, cutting-edge therapy room, chapel, and more.
“Everything here is designed to get you up and out, moving and active,” says NDVS Communications Director Terri Hendry. “We are aiming to encourage an active, vibrant community,” she adds.
The new veteran’s home tries to provide everything that Nevada vets could ever want or need within the facility, including hosted movie nights and a community room that can be rented out to other local entities for small gatherings and events.
“Before this facility, there wasn’t a place that could take all of the veterans in Northern Nevada so many of them had to go out of state. Think about having to do that at such a vulnerable time in your life. Now you can have a have coffee with your grandfather in the bistro, attend a movie night with him, go watch the game in the sports bar; there are things to do. This place keeps you engaged, a way to stay connected, gives you a reason to get up in the morning,” she says.
Construction of the veteran’s home was finished on time, going from “sagebrush to service in just 18 months”, as Governor Brian Sandoval predicted in July 2017. However, even though the main construction of the home is completed, it will probably not accept new residents until spring of 2019 after the home receives its necessary state and federal credentials.
“Now is when the rubber meets the road,” Hendry says about the process to get accredited and available to new residents. The NDVS has been keeping a list of names for people interested in living there, but as time goes on some names have dropped off and some have come on. Anyone interested in living at the new Northern Nevada State Veteran’s Home may fill out an application of interest and will be considered as long as they meet the requirements- residents must have been honorably discharged from their time in the US military and have a medical need to live in this skilled nursing facility which provides 24/7 care.
The Northern Nevada State Veteran’s Home is intended to serve veterans, their spouses, and Gold Star Families- mainly for parents who have lost their children in combat. For more information about the new home, visit https://veterans.nv.gov.
