"VA Nursing Home in St. Augustine, Florida: Ted Tyndall"
Ground Breaking Ceremony
The Clyde E. Lassen State Veterans Nursing Home is under construction along State Road 16 in St. Augustine, Florida. This will be the first such home built in North Florida. It will be the seventh VA nursing home in Florida.
St. Johns County was selected by the then-Gov. Jeb Bush on January 31, 2006.
Tom crawford, the county's director of Housing and Community Services notified the commission that the county already owned a 12 acre parcel in World Commerce Center which would save the county as much as $7,000,000 for the cost of the land.
It was located of I95 and had been identified by veterans councils as the best location for a nursing home, which would serve veterans within a 75 mile radius.
Mary Ann Blount, the county's land management director told commissioners that within a 75 mile radius of St. Johns County, lived about 300,000 military veterans, about 112,000 of whom are over age 65.
The facility will be the first "green" nursing home in Florida, using nationally accepted benchmarks for designs.
Lassen, for whom the facility is named, was born in Fort Myers, Florida. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on June 19, 1968 when as a Navy Lieutenant, he risked his life while flying a helicopter to search for and rescue two downed pilots.
It is the first Nursing Home to be named for a Navy veteran.
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