LOCAL

Plans in motion for new, larger VA clinic in Galesburg

Samuel Lisec
Galesburg Register-Mail
Pictured is the Lane A. Evans VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic, 310 Home Blvd. in Galesburg.

Editor's note: Jamie Johnson, public affairs officer for the Iowa City VA, said the site on West Carl Sandburg Drive is only a potential location and that site location likely won't be determined until late summer or early fall.

GALESBURG — The city of Galesburg has approved an agreement to sell 2.96 acres of land to be developed into a new community-based outpatient clinic for the Department of Veteran Affairs.

The proposed site is located on West Carl Sandburg Drive, in a vacant lot west of the Sherwin Paint store at 2246 Promenade Ct.

The non-exclusive option that members of the Galesburg City Council unanimously approved on June 20 will allow a developer of the VA’s choosing to buy the property for $250,000 and construct a new clinic to be leased by the VA.

Jamie Johnson, public affairs officer for the Iowa City VA, said that the new clinic will likely be twice the size of Galesburg’s current VA clinic, which was built in 2013 at 310 Home Blvd

Johnson said it is too early to provide a timeline of when the project will be completed or what exact new services the clinic will provide, as it will depend on what providers will be hired into the space.

The proposed site of a new VA clinic in Galesburg is located on West Carl Sandburg Drive, in a vacant lot west of the Sherwin Paint store at 2246 Promenade Ct.

But Johnson did say the clinic will have updated exam rooms and will have to increase its staff. Johnson said the reason for needing a new clinic is that the clinic has been seeing more utilization in recent years and the VA anticipates the increase to continue.

Johnson said that once the new clinic is built, the VA will likely stop leasing its current clinic location in Galesburg and that patient care should go uninterrupted. The public affairs officer said that the VA has moved its clinics into new and better locations in other nearby cities in recent years, such as in Quincy and Sterling.

It marks the second time Galesburg has outgrown a VA clinic. The current 10,000 square foot clinic on Home Boulevard was built in 2013 after the VA outgrew the slightly less than 5,000 square foot building at 387 E. Grove St.

Local elected officials and veterans gathered in January 2015 for the renaming of the Galesburg VA Clinic after the late former Congressman Lane Evans. Evans died in November 2014 at the age of 63 after a 19-year battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was a Vietnam veteran and served the 17th District from 1983 to 2007. Evans fought to have the VA recognize Agent Orange as a cause of health problems and helped bring the original VA facility to Galesburg.

It is now known as the Lane A. Evans VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic.