Site selected and property papers signed for Springfield VA clinic

By: Rachael Mhire | 8 years ago

Plans to build a new Veterans Affairs clinic in Springfield took another step forward after a land deal for the clinic’s future site was closed Monday, according to a real estate agent with knowledge of the deal.

Bob Murray, of R.B. Murray Company, said the papers were signed in his office and that he was pleased to see the two 10-acre tracts near the intersection of Republic Road and Kansas Expressway

“I think it’s a needed clinic for the Springfield area,” Murray said.

The VA had been examining potential sites for years.

The closest VA clinic in Mt. Vernon will close and reopen in Springfield. Originally planned for an early 2015 opening, in November the Springfield clinic was estimated to open in late 2018 or early 2019.

A regional VA official said last year that the move will allow the VA to serve an estimated 14,000 veterans in the cities — 9,000 in Springfield and 5,000 in Joplin — who have not been traveling to Mt. Vernon.

The planned relocation of the VA facility in Mt. Vernon to a new clinic in Springfield has been slow to come to fruition.

The VA originally proposed building a clinic in Springfield in 1984. But two area congressmen — Republican Rep. Gene Taylor of Missouri and Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt of Arkansas — pushed for locating in Mt. Vernon instead, and petitions with signatures of more than 3,500 signatures from veterans were submitted to officials in support. The Mt. Vernon clinic, which is named after Taylor, opened in 1989.

Article as reported by the Springfield News-Leader here.