The deadly COVID-19 outbreak that swept through the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home last year underscored the need to reconstruct the long-term care facility with modern improvements, state officials and community members said Tuesday.
With federal funds at stake, Gov. Charlie Baker is pushing the Legislature to pass a bill (H 64) by April 1 authorizing $400 million for construction of a new veterans’ home in Holyoke, and the project faces an even greater spotlight amid the pandemic.
Secretary of Veterans’ Services Cheryl Poppe told lawmakers that the public health emergency brought new attention to HVAC and airflow issues in the facility. It also prompted additional interest in a “small home” concept with a majority of private rooms, a change Poppe said could not be achieved solely through renovations.
“The COVID-19 outbreak at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke shone a light on the need for a new facility that will serve veterans in that area for many years in the future,” Poppe said at a Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight hearing.
Echoing the urgency Baker raised when he filed the bill on Feb. 11, Poppe and other administration officials told the committee that they need legislative action on the bond bill by April 1 to help get federal funding for up to 65 percent of the project costs.
The Baker administration must submit an application for the federal grant by Aug. 1, and officials say the state Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance needs the authorization four months before that date to get the design into shape.
Getting reimbursement from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is a critical goal, and state and federal officials have already had conversations about the project, according to Alda Rego, assistant secretary for administration and finance at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
Massachusetts National Guard Major Gen. Gary Keefe, who chairs the home’s board, told the committee that the state needs legislative action “as soon as possible,” warning that waiting a year to offer more time for review could imperil the finances.
Rep. Patricia Duffy, a first-term Democrat from Holyoke, also cited the pandemic as a main reason to act swiftly. She urged her colleagues to move as quickly as possible.
“The federal government has realized that we’ve got a real need here,” Duffy said. “They want to step up and help us out now. There’s an unprecedented opportunity.”
For some lawmakers, though, the compressed timeline is concerning.
During Tuesday’s hearing, which came exactly one month after Baker’s bill landed in the State Administration and Regulatory Oversight committee, co-chair Sen. Marc Pacheco pressed administration officials on why Baker did not file a bill until mid-February if the timeline would be so crunched.
“Putting a $400 million project together and coming to the Legislature with the timeline we need to deal with is extremely unusual,” he said. “Why weren’t we given more time for consideration of this enormous investment, which is deserved?”
Before Baker submitted the legislation, Rego said, the administration sought input from the Holyoke home’s board of trustees, who gave their stamp of approval in early February.
Lawmakers have previously flagged concerns with the proposed facility design that includes 192 beds, a drop from the current capacity of 235.
The Holyoke reconstruction would cost roughly twice as much as similar work at the other state-run soldiers’ home in Chelsea.
Consideration of the bond bill comes while a special legislative committee is still investigating the March 2020 COVID-19 outbreak connected to the deaths of at least 76 veterans who lived at the Holyoke home. That panel has a deadline by the end of the month to submit a report.
Jesse Flynn, legislative director of the non-profit organization Disabled American Veterans Department of Massachusetts, told lawmakers Tuesday that they should wait until the panel completes its review to advance the expenditure.
“The COVID-19 crisis at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home has brought to the forefront long-existing systematic problems in the way both of our soldiers’ homes are operated by the commonwealth,” Flynn said. “This committee should be allowed time to complete its report and provide its findings and recommendations before the commonwealth makes such a large investment into a single facility.”
Other community members told the State Administration and Regulatory Oversight Committee that approving reconstruction will help Massachusetts and its residents move past last year’s tragedy.
John Paradis, who served as the home’s communications director and deputy superintendent from May 2013 to December 2015, said he has heard endless questions about how such an outcome could have happened in Holyoke.
“We truly believe that we cannot as a community heal from such a tragic loss without a new path forward,” he said. “That path forward must be a new shining example on the hill, a new soldiers’ home in Holyoke.”
Other than the concerns Flynn raised about aligning the construction with the legislative investigation, there were virtually no objections raised about the project during Tuesday’s hearing, which drew mostly supportive testimony.