Opening of new veterans home planned for late fall • Oklahoma Voice

OKLAHOMA CITY – A new veterans home is under construction in Sallisaw.

The Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs is expected to open the 175-bed home in late fall. It will replace the home in Talihina, which closed in 2012. October.

With the opening of Sallisaw, the state now has seven active veterans homes. The others are in Ardmore, Claremore, Clinton, Lawton, Norman and Sulphur.

Greg Slavonic, executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, oversaw construction progress on the Sallisaw Home and the closure of Talihina’s Home during his 15 months with the agency.

He said the target opening date is late November or early December if all goes according to plan. The Sallisaw home is about 80% complete, he said, and IT installation has begun.

“I’m very pleased with the way everyone has worked together, the Flintco team and our team. They have pulled together and made sure we have a good relationship with each other. We are all pulling together with the goal of opening the home as quickly as possible.”

The furniture will be brought in during August, said building program director Nisha Young during a June 10 meeting of the Oklahoma Veterans Commission.

According to Slavonic, 20 veterans will move into the home when it opens to demonstrate to the Federal Office of Veterans Affairs the competence of the staff and the efficiency of the facility. The home will then be evaluated according to a pass/fail standard.

If the home fails inspection, Slavonic said there will likely be a quick fix.

“If we fail, it will not be a life-threatening situation, as I have been told by my deputy, who is in constant contact with other homes that have gone through this process,” Slavonic said. “So it will not be a life-threatening situation. It will probably be something technical or procedural that we are not doing that needs to be corrected.”

Rob Arrington, director of residential care for the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, said he expects enrollment to be open to all veterans by the end of the year or early 2025.

According to Slavonic, the original plan was to close the Talihina home at the same time as the Sallisaw home opened. However, due to technical and design changes, this schedule was not met.

The closure of Talihina forced 36 veterans to leave their home. They had the choice to move to one of the other six active homes and have a “right of first refusal” for the home in Sallisaw, Slavonic said.

A few months after taking over as executive director, Slavonic learned that it would cost $500,000 a month to keep the doors of the 600-acre property open.

That was a price Slavonic was unwilling to pay.

“…I just didn’t feel like that was the best use of taxpayer money,” Slavonic said. “So it just made sense to close it early and try to save some of the money since we were already having some problems with our budget.”

Samantha Shoecrast, director and event coordinator of the Talihina Chamber of Commerce, expressed hope that the property could create jobs and thus address the “unemployment shortage” in Talihina.

“It would be great if we could create more jobs for Talihina, anything that could create jobs for the locals of Talihina.”

Talihina has a population of 2,215 and an employment rate of 39.5%. Census data 2020.

Shoecrast has not heard of any plans for the property.

When the Chickasaw and Choctaw learned that the land was no longer being used, they demanded its return. The tribes donated the land to the state to establish a tuberculosis sanatorium, which opened in 1921. It later became a veterans’ home.

The nations did not respond to requests for comment.

Now the state is considering selling the property. Slavonic said it is valued at $5.6 million.

The Talihina house is for sale, Slavonic said, but there have been no formal bids yet. He said they hope to sell the house by winter to avoid additional operating costs such as heating and water.

Christina Helfrey, spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, said in a statement that the agency is working with the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs on the future of the property.

“We are examining tribal rights and exploring ways to work together for the benefit of all Oklahomans,” Helfrey said.