Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 3, 1991 TAG: 9102030101
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES HITE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Many states are laying off people and raising taxes. Virginia hasn't done either," Wilder told reporters during a visit to the Salem Veterans Administration Medical Center. Wilder spoke at a ground-breaking ceremony for the state's first veterans' home.
About 15 state employees plus family members gathered at the entrance to the medical center before Wilder's speech, carrying hand-made placards protesting the furlough proposal.
"I've been a state employee 10 years, and I've never seen anything like this in my life," said Shelia Stewart, a worker in the business office at Virginia Western Community College.
"I'm a single parent and have to work two jobs," Stewart added. "The governor's going to furlough me 15 days and take $1,200 out of my check. That's the thanks I get."
Gene Amburgey, another Virginia Western employee, said Wilder was putting the brunt of budget-cutting measures on state workers.
Wilder said he was doing his best to "spread the burden evenly." He said state employees he had talked to "would rather have a furlough than lose jobs."
The governor earlier had proposed a plan to give state workers unpaid leaves for up to six days. He expanded the time period Friday, when he announced that the state's revenue shortfall is now $2.2 billion, about $176 million more than the most recent estimate.
In a speech to representatives from veterans' organizations from across the state, Wilder said the home will only begin to repay the debt the state owes to its 677,000 veterans.
Appreciation of that debt has been highlighted by the hostilities in the Persian Gulf, the governor said.
"The personal challenges for today's serviceman or woman on the Kuwaiti border and in Dhahran is the same as that which filled the long days and nights of those who have pondered the virtues of freedom as well as their own mortality at Yorktown, at Gettysburg, at Normandy, at Inchon and at Khe San."
The 240-bed home is estimated to cost $15.3 million, with the federal government paying two-thirds and the state one-third. The home will offer intermediate and skilled nursing care, as well as residential living. Completion is scheduled for Veterans Day 1992.
When the veterans' home was being pushed through Congress and the state legislature during the late '80s, reports indicated it would be named in honor of the late Rep. W.C. "Dan" Daniel of Danville. But officials said Saturday the home would not be named for Daniel.
State officials discovered last summer while reviewing engineering and architectural drawings that the home had never been officially named, according to Richard O'Dell, director of the Virginia Department of Veterans' Affairs.
The Wilder administration then worked with Sen. William Fears, D-Accomac, to have the home named simply the Virginia Veterans Care Center, as a way of showing respect for all veterans, according to Laura Dillard, Wilder's press secretary. Fears has introduced a bill in the General Assembly authorizing that name.
It is likely that Daniel will be honored or recognized by a bust, portrait or plaque in the atrium of the new home, said Rep. Jim Olin, D-Roanoke. A commission that will oversee operation of the home will honor individual veterans in that way, Olin said.
"This comes after a lot of consideration," Olin said of the decision to name the home. "Everyone involved said it was more appropriate that rather than name it after one individual, it should recognize all veterans."
by CNB