Hundreds Of Veterans Rally To Demand 'FTDT' At Unfinished VA Hospital
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - Veterans in Colorado are demanding that Congress act to keep construction at the Veteran's Affairs medical center on track.
About 200 veterans rallied on Sunday outside the facility, which has been plagued with controversies for years. They showed up with one message: "Finish The Damn Thing."
Some say the two weeks of funding that remains is good news, because at least work is still being done.
Ralph Bozella, of the United Veterans Committee of Colorado, has been involved with the VA facility in Aurora for nearly 15 years.
"If Congress does not fund this thing being finished, you know who is going to get hurt don't you? The veteran," said Bozella.
The cost of the project has ballooned to $1.73 billion.
"Just finish the damn thing, it isn't that hard," Bozella said at the rally.
Right now only a few hundred dollars is left to keep it under construction.
"Every time they talk about shutting any part of this down and rebuilding it later, well, here comes another battle over can they fund it or will they fund it? And a finished hospital is every one of these buildings attached to this spine needs to be finished," Bozella said.
Veterans said the rally was a call for congressional action, adding that they've been promised a new facility and it's on the government to keep that promise of serving one million veterans across the entire Rocky Mountain region.
"This country has enough money to finish that building," announced Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter at the rally.
"If this is not finished this will be a national disgrace," Bozella spoke over the microphone.
While the majority of the crowd was made up of veterans who need the services now, the hospital, if it ever gets finished, will serve more generations to come.
"I feel like I'm the youngest guy out here," said Sean Davenport-Smith, who just got out of the Navy.
"Right now I feel like it's so hard to even get in to see the VA, I don't even bother with it. But with something so close to home and having more access to better care I feel like I could take advantage of it a lot more," he said.
Bozella said, "As those guys and those women get older, they're going to be looking for this place right here. And it must be finished to meet their needs."
The head of the United Veterans Committee of Colorado said this is a simple option because mothballing the project, or simply letting the funding run out, would only cause the project cost to rise even higher.
Now the work begins in Washington in order to get the facility done. If funding is still put forward, the hospital should open in 2017.
