A new committee has launched a major campaign to convince state and federal officials to bring a Veteran's Affairs medical clinic to Howard County, which officials say has the highest number of veterans per capita of any county in the state.
Gary Loveless, secretary of the Howard County Military Foundation Advisory Committee, said the new committee was formed in January after local veterans began expressing serious concerns about their access to area VA clinics.
Retired Maj. Gen. Dave Harris, who served in the Indiana National Guard for 37 years and worked two years at the Pentagon as director of domestic operations for the National Guard Bureau, is spearheading the effort.
He said establishing a clinic in Kokomo makes sense considering the large veterans population that sometimes must drive to Fort Wayne to receive care from a VA clinic.
"We know we have a large veterans presence here, and we know that the facilities in surrounding counties are struggling to meet all their appointments," Harris said. "Some veterans are waiting up to three weeks to get an appointment. Bringing a facility to Kokomo would help alleviate this."
There are 15 community-based outpatient clinics in Indiana and three medical centers.
The Peru VA clinic is the closest to Kokomo, but veterans there recently reported waiting up to a year sometimes to schedule an appointment.
Although the need for a clinic in Kokomo seems obvious to area veterans, Harris said, convincing state and federal officials to allocate the funds to establish one will be no easy task.
"We know we have a lot of support for this from out elected officials, both state, local and national," he said. "But that doesn't necessarily improve our chances of getting a clinic here, because there so many pieces to this puzzle."
Harris said they hope to learn how to put that puzzle together this Tuesday, when committee members will meet with Indiana Veterans Affairs Director James Brown and Governor Eric Holcomb's senior representative in Indianapolis - the first major step the committee has taken on its mission.
He said the committee has two main goals during the meeting: Get a realistic sense of the financial feasibility of the project, and learn what the county needs to provide the state in order to bring a clinic to Howard County.
Loveless said the committee has already formed a strong coalition of support from elected officials, and they hope that support will go a long way in getting the proposal off the ground.
"To get something like this done, you have to have all cylinders firing," he said.
Harris, who recently retired from Chrysler in Kokomo after more than 30 years, agreed. He said having dedicated supporters both inside and outside the statehouse will be a driving force in getting the necessary funding to bring a VA clinic to the city.
"You have got to have your supporters committed, because if you don't have people willing to stand with you who are bound and determined for your cause, it will get shelved in a hurry," he said.
"In the end, it doesn't matter how great the need is," Harris said. "It always comes down to finding the money to put it into place. So you have to build a very good case about why you have to rise to the top."
He said Tuesday's meeting should give the committee the tools it needs to continue the push to bring a VA clinic to Howard County.
"On Tuesday, we should walk away knowing how many pieces of the puzzle we have in place," Harris said.