Done deals
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By CHARLES F. TRENTELMAN
Standard-Examiner staff
Governor signs bill for Ogden veterans nursing home
OGDEN -- Gov. Jon Huntsman lifted his pen Friday afternoon, paused, looked at Medal of Honor recipient George Wahlen and said, "This is in your honor" -- then he signed the bill authorizing money to build a 120-bed veterans nursing home in Weber County.
The signing was at the end of a ceremony next to the site of the home, on 1200 West in Ogden, near the Weber County Fairgrounds and across from Wahlquist Junior High School.
Wahlen, Utah's only living recipient of the Medal of Honor, has worked for more than 20 years to get veterans nursing homes built in Utah, first in Salt Lake City and now in Weber County.
"It's certainly a great thing to see it happen," Wahlen said, and a lot of people agree with him. More than 100 veterans and government officials from Ogden, Weber County and around the state turned out to watch Huntsman sign the bill.
Utah has one 80-bed nursing home for veterans in Salt Lake City. It has been working for more than five years for a second, and Utah agreed several years ago to provide matching funds to build the home, now estimated to cost $20 million.
Two years ago, however, veterans learned that Utah's home was about seven years down on the federal funds waiting list, so they began to lobby the Legislature to provide all the money for the home now and to wait for federal reimbursement.
Near the end of this year's legislative session, the veterans succeeded.
Construction of the home should start this fall, "and we would like it to be done by November of 2009," said Utah Department of Veterans Affairs Director Terry Schow.
The Veterans Administration will provide the home's operating funds.
"As you look around, there's a lot of World War IIs still here," said Casey Kunimura, an 83-year-old veteran of that war, "but the number's diminishing. To me, this is probably one of the greatest things to happen to veterans in Northern Utah."
Dennis Howland, who served with the Marines during the Vietnam War, carried a rifle in the Ogden Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1481 honor guard.
"This is good, this is a great day," he said as he waited for the ceremony to begin.
"This is a great place," he said, pointing to the site of the home across the street from the signing ceremony.
"The Reserve unit is right there," he said, pointing to a U.S. Army Reserve building up the street.
"They can come down here and do exercises. And there's the school," he said as he pointed to Wahlquist Junior High. "They can probably adopt the patients."
It was a busy day in the Top of Utah for Huntsman. He also stopped at North Layton Junior High to sign House Concurrent Resolution 1, which was written by the school's student leadership.
At the beginning of the school year, Rep. Curt Oda, R-Clearfield, visited the school's student body officers and challenged them to get involved in the legislative process.
"I asked you to come up with a great idea, and you did," said Oda, the chief sponsor of the resolution.
The Meth Awareness for Students and Educators Resolution urges that information about the dangers of methamphetamine be distributed to junior high, senior high and post-secondary students.
"We want more kids to be informed about it," said Kamarie Nicadao, North Layton Junior High student body president.
"They will learn how dangerous it is to their health, so when they grow up, they won't lose their lives over it."
The students chose to focus on meth after their principal, David Turner, who volunteers on the Davis County Safe Home, School, Community executive committee, told them about the effects the drug has on Northern Utah families.
Reporter Beth Young contributed to this article.
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