{"id":413719,"date":"2010-03-10T12:42:34","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T17:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogs.courant.com,2010:\/capitol_watch\/\/9.73516"},"modified":"2010-03-10T12:47:19","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T17:47:19","slug":"veterans-home-and-nearby-houses-may-see-improvements-projects-on-next-weeks-bond-commission-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/413719","title":{"rendered":"Veterans&#8217; Home And Nearby Houses May See Improvements; Projects On Next Week&#8217;s Bond Commission Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <span lang=\"EN\"><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">ROCKY HILL &#8212;&nbsp;Gov. M. Jodi Rell is hoping to improve the living areas at the State Veterans&#8217; Home and wants to rehabilitate the five state-owned homes across the street for veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan. <\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Funding for the two projects is expected to be approved by the state bond commission March 16, Rell said. <\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Nearly $2.5 million in state bonds will help the state upgrade living areas at the veterans&#8217; home on West Street. The total cost of the project is $9.2 million, and Rell says the federal government has already given conditional approval to pay the remaining 65 percent.<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">The state will use the money to make the brick building that was built in the 1940s handicapped accessible and to install centralized air conditioning in the home&#8217;s sleeping area. Other work will include upgrading fire sprinkler systems, modernizing common bathroom areas, replacing leaky roofs and gutters and upgrading to energy-efficient heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">The veterans&#8217; home has about 500 residents who range from age 23 to 97. <\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Across the street from the veterans&#8217; home are five state-owned houses that were built in 1957. They were once used by veterans&#8217; home staff and have been vacant since about 2004.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Rell wants the state to bond $250,000 to fix these homes up for veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan who need a temporary place to stay. There would be a total of 16 bedrooms, said Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Linda Schwartz, adding that many veterans have difficult finding a place to stay when they return to Connecticut. Schwartz said the homes will especially help married couples and veterans who are single mothers. <\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">Additional state workers will not be needed to watch over the houses. The state will ask veterans groups for help in getting tenants. <\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&#8220;We&#8217;re ready to go,&#8221; Schwartz said of the two projects. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ROCKY HILL &#8212;&nbsp;Gov. M. Jodi Rell is hoping to improve the living areas at the State Veterans&#8217; Home and wants to rehabilitate the five state-owned homes across the street for veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan. Funding for the two projects is expected to be approved by the state bond commission March 16, Rell said. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-413719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}