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Vet pushes veterans medical center idea
An 81-year-old World War II veteran wants to turn a vacant Brooksville hospital into a facility for veterans, but obstacles abound.
By ASJYLYN LODER
Published December 8, 2005
BROOKSVILLE - To Frank Aguele, an 81-year-old veteran of World War II, converting the vacant Brooksville hospital building into a full-fledged medical center for veterans makes perfect sense.
By his estimates, there are more than 100,000 veterans in Pasco, Citrus and Hernando counties. But the nearest veterans hospital is in Tampa, 60 miles from the county line dividing Hernando and Citrus, too far for aging vets stranded without a car, he said.
"We need this. It's too far away. I don't drive anymore. A lot of people don't," Aguele said.
Aguele has enlisted local veterans groups in his campaign to convert the old hospital, and sent letters to local elected officials. But his dream may gain little traction because Hernando County is not on the federal roster of places slated for new veterans hospitals, and converting the old facility may be prohibitively expensive.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has plans to expand veterans health care services in Florida through 2025. The result of a nationwide study that found a shortage of veterans health care services in some Southern states, those plans do not include a new hospital on the North Suncoast, according to Charles Keller, spokesman for U.S. Rep Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville.
A long-range plan to remedy the shortage included building and expanding outpatient clinics in Florida, adding new services to the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, and building a new hospital in Orlando, Keller said.
The Hernando County Commission has not yet decided whether to sell or renovate the old hospital for office space at an estimated cost of $17-million.
However, making it a hospital that met current construction codes would be far more expensive, said Tom Barb, executive director of Brooksville Regional Hospital, the building's former tenant.
"That's one of the reasons we elected to close and move the hospital, because it would have cost so much," Barb said.
Asjylyn Loder can be reached at aloder@sptimes.com or 352 754-6127.
[Last modified December 8, 2005, 00:50:19]
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