Thursday, May 28, 2009
By Jim Maniaci

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Nevada Third District Congresswoman Dina Titus announced on May 21 that $1.1 million has been allocated for the Laughlin military veterans outreach clinic. It also will serve veterans in northwestern Arizona.

The money is part of $215 million for 74 projects to assist veterans in rural areas across the country. The project will establish a part-time outreach clinic for primary care, mental health, and ancillary health care services to more than 1,300 veterans, she said in a letter to Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. She urged him to have the department quickly build the clinic.

Her announcement brought a quick reaction from Pete Gorie, president of the Laughlin Economic Development Corporation.

“This has been a long time coming. The whole region should be ecstatic with this exciting development. Representatives of the LEDC, the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars recently met with Dan Giraldo, district director for Congresswoman Dina Titus. Subsequent to that meeting, on May 21 Congresswoman Titus sent a letter to Secretary Erik K. Shinseki, Department of Veterans Affairs, requesting a timeline for establishing the clinic.” Giraldo visited on May 12 for the Laughlin Town Advisory Board meeting about amending a 63-year-old law under which the federal government does not have to keep the Laughlin Lagoon channel to the Colorado River open.

Money for the Laughlin clinic was awarded after a competitive process.

The likelihood of a river cities clinic was unveiled about a year ago when a high-ranking doctor at the VA hospital near Nellis Air Force Base visited Laughlin to explain the establishment of several outreach clinics to take the strain off the main hospital while bringing services closer to veterans.

The official said the area had reached the minimum number of veterans to qualify for a clinic and that it would take a year for the VA to approve it.
 

Tags: veterans