Veterans center ‘taking shape quite nicely’

Work continues on the Sallisaw Veterans Center — almost exclusively indoors these days — as the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs (ODVA) progresses toward its long-anticipated opening of the facility in late 2024 or early 2025.

And from ODVA Executive Director Greg Slavonic’s perspective, work on the 230,000-square-foot center is going well.

“I’m very happy with the progress,” Slavonic says when talking about ODVA’s construction partner Flintco. “I’m very happy with how they’re working with my construction person. Everyone is communicating, which I think that’s key. I’m good with how we’re progressing.

“I would say we’re approximately at the 60% completion mark. I can assure you that our builder, Flintco, really wants to get this project completed, so I think they are moving as quickly as possible. Right now, the date of completion is around the end of next year — December 2024 or early January 2025 — if we had to give you a date right now. But, again, it’s all contingent upon the weather how quickly things can come together,” Slavonic says.

Greg Slavonic

“It’s taking shape quite nicely. It’s going to be a beautiful facility.”

Following the Sept. 23, 2020, ground breaking at the 90-acre site on U.S. 59 south of I-40, construction of the long-term care facility made major strides during the initial year, with the skeleton of the expansive center quickly taking shape.

But for the majority of 2022 — from February through October — it appeared no work was being done while the massive center consisted primarily of exterior walls overlayed with green house wrap.

The eight-month work stoppage occurred when a dispute arose between the ODVA and architectural/ engineering firm Orcutt | Winslow. In a subsequent $20 million lawsuit filed in August against Orcutt | Winslow as well as Cooper Project Advisors, the ODVA claimed building code violations and failure to account for “federally protected wetlands which had been unlawfully disturbed” during construction were at the center of the delays in completing the project.

“I’m disappointed that it’s taking this long, but this is what I inherited and am moving forward with,” says Slavonic, a retired rear admiral and former U.S. Navy under secretary, who was also chief operating officer and chief management officer for the Navy. “I’ve met with individuals from Flintco a couple of times. They’ve got a good attitude, working hard, wanting to do the best job possible. I’m glad they were flexible enough to work with us and allow us this little stoppage of time to get things all put together.

“My understanding is they’re going to hopefully begin drywalling within the next 30 to 45 days, and that will allow us to even move more quickly and get the other things done internally. So internally is where all the heavy lifting’s coming, and trying to get things resolved and put together.

“There’s not been anything outside that we need to work on. It’s really all interior work right now,” he says.

When Slavonic was hired in March as interim executive director to replace embattled executive director Joel Kintsel, at the top of his list was addressing the Sallisaw Veterans Center fiasco. Within 10 days of taking the job, the Oklahoma Veterans Commission approved a request for more than $21.7 million to subsidize the construction project that had been fraught with cost increases. The Oklahoma Legislature subsequently approved the funding, and the project has been in high gear ever since.

Slavonic, who was named executive director in August, says he has visited the Sallisaw facility twice, “and I have looked at the progress, and it’s moving along well.”

The progress has not been limited to the building of the facility, but also resolving the issue of federally protected wetlands which had been unlawfully disturbed during construction.

“According to my construction person, I think we’re waiting to get information from the Army Corps [of Engineers] regarding the wetlands issue that is being resolved. My team’s done the due diligence to give the Army Corps everything they need. They’re good, they’ve just gotta, to my understanding, come out, do another inspection and give us the paperwork we need, and then I believe the wetlands issue will be resolved as well,” Slavonic reports.

But completion of the Sallisaw center can’t be soon enough for veterans who used to live at the Talihina Veterans Home, which closed its doors on Oct. 31.

“Those residents — which there were 36 at the time when we began this process in June to close the facility — those residents have been moved to our other six homes. They’re doing fine,” Slavonic says. “We would have rather had the Sallisaw home opened in July when it was supposed to a couple of months ago, but it didn’t work out that way, so we’re moving forward as quickly as we can to get the Sallisaw home up and running.

“There’s not been any other surprises, everything’s running smoothly right now. We just don’t know what might come up,” he says. “Right now, there’s no change orders or anything like that that have come forward that we need to respond to.”

Background

During construction, the project encountered “numerous issues with the construction documents,” errors that needed to be resolved. Because of that, the ODVA terminated its contract with Orcutt | Winslow, the Arizona architectural services firm.

In the lawsuit filed in August, negligence by Orcutt | Winslow is alleged to have caused significant delays and additional costs to the project.

Following the eightmonth work stoppage in 2022, the projected final cost to complete the veterans center had soared from less than $65 million to $92 million, and the opening of the center was delayed from the original March 2023 date to April 2024. The completion date was subsequently revised to October 2024, but inspection and other requirements by the federal Veterans Administration were expected to delay the opening until January 2025.

In June, it was announced operational challenges and massive financial deficits had forced the Talihina Veterans Home to be shuttered by Oct. 1. But within a week, state legislators pushed back on the decision, claiming that the closure of the Latimer County facility had been put on indefinite hold, with the expectation that the home would remain open until the Sallisaw center is complete. But Slavonic made the decision to close the Talihina home by Oct. 31.

When completed, the Sallisaw Veterans Center is expected to be “a state-of-the-art facility” offering “a home-like environment” that “will be the premier facility of its kind in the U.S.” ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING

The project

When completed, the Sallisaw veterans center will feature four buildings — three residential “neighborhoods” and a central community center. A neighborhood at the center is similar to a subdivision in a housing development. In two of the buildings currently under construction, a neighborhood consists of 72 residential rooms, with a third building comprised of 36 residences. The centralized community center will offer a reception area, dining room, a large room that can be used as a theater or a chapel, space for arts and crafts, a barber shop, a physical therapy room and a pharmacy to serve medical needs of the residents.

“This is a state-of-the-art facility. It’s a homelike environment, and will be the premier facility of its kind in the U.S.,” then-ODVA executive director Joel Kintsel said when he visited Sallisaw in October 2021. He said veterans with 70% disability or higher will not have to pay anything to stay in the facility.

Sallisaw beat out finalists Poteau and Muskogee for the new eastern Oklahoma veterans center location. At the beginning of the selection process, there were six communities, which also included McAlester, Hugo and Holdenville.