Finally, Region’s Vets Get More Than A Salute New Center Combines Vital Services Under One Roof

Spokane area veterans got more than the usual speeches, playing of taps and 21-gun salute this Veterans Day.

They got a single place to go for answers to questions about benefits from government programs and help from local service groups.

More than 200 veterans and their family members gathered for the opening of the state Department of Veterans Affairs Service Center, a facility local officials believe is unique to Spokane.

Beau Bergeron, state director of veterans affairs, said the holiday - which marks the end of World War I - often is just a day when politicians “serve up platitudes” to people who then rush off to local stores to take advantage of Veterans Day sales.

But a cooperative arrangement among the state, federal Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Sabey Corp. construction firm turned the service center into a reality just two months after the ground breaking.

The 2,500-square-foot brick-and-frame building, about a block north of the VA hospital, combines services that previously were spread throughout Spokane. It allows a veteran to get answers to questions about government programs such as disability payments, talk with a vocational rehabilitation counselor and sign up for volunteer transportation services offered by the Disabled American Veterans.

“It’s the first facility of its type in the nation,” said Joe Manley, Spokane VA Medical Center director.

Ron Porzio, assistant VA center director, said the federal, state and company officials were able to “weave their way through federal requirements” that normally thwart such cooperative ventures.

The medical center donated the land and ran utilities to the site. Sabey Corp. built the $140,000 structure in two months. The state will lease the building from Sabey on a 15-year contract.

“I wish we had more of these in other places around the state,” said Richard Murphy, the director of VA benefits from Seattle.

In other Veterans Day activities, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars laid a wreath at the memorial at the Spokane Arena, then presented American flags to a representative for each school in Spokane School District 81.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos