LEWISTON — After countless political letters, phone calls, petitions and pleas, Jerry DeWitt stumbled Thursday as he tried to describe a celebration that seemed to give him all he wanted.
“It seems like a done deal.” DeWitt said. “Even politically.”
A few feet away, an artist’s rendering of a new Veterans Affairs Community-Based Outpatient Clinic sat poised on an easel. U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine, talked with local leaders, including the mayors of Lewiston and Auburn, several state legislators and veterans.
For a decade, DeWitt, an American Red Cross leader, nurse and veteran, has been working to convince the Department of Veterans Affairs to open a clinic in Lewiston-Auburn. Over the years, he managed to convince the VA to move the planned clinic from the Brunswick area to Androscoggin County.
“This area has the highest per-capita population of veterans in the state,” DeWitt said. Over the years, he and others helped document the more than 13,000 veterans in Androscoggin County and spent weekends in local shopping center parking lots, enrolling veterans with the VA in hopes of showing the need and critical numbers for a clinic. Michaud helped.
Meanwhile, clinics have opened in Bangor, Calais, Caribou, Fort Kent, Houlton, Lincoln, Rumford and Saco.
Though news about the new Lewiston clinic and an interim one in Auburn was released weeks ago, Michaud held the gathering and press conference to celebrate the work of so many, he said.
“This is the best part of my job,” he said.
When it is completed sometime in late 2011, the 30,000-square-foot clinic will offer a variety of services to veterans dealing with issues ranging from chronic illnesses such as hypertension and diabetes to mental health problems. There will be testing and treatment for audiology and optometry. Leaders also hope to offer dentistry, Michaud said.
The new clinic will be located at 15 Challenger Drive, near Maine Turnpike Exit 80 off Alfred Plourde Parkway. The property is owned by Maine Veterans Homes. Beside the new clinic, the group plans to build an adult day care center.
“The new clinic will help ease the travel burden on local veterans by allowing them to receive care closer to home,” Michaud said.
Some limited services will be offered to local veterans this year. Armory space on Minot Avenue in Auburn — now occupied by the Army Reserve’s 399th Combat Medical Hospital — has been slated to house a temporary facility. The site has been offered to the VA at no cost.
No firm timetable has been established for the interim clinic to be operating, said James Doherty, spokesman for the Togus VA Hospital.
“It will probably be up and running in a few months,” he said.
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