Vets' nursing home in ET becoming reality
79-year-old's endeavor to open Knox County facility nears finish line

MICHAEL SILENCE
KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL
MARCH 5, 2005

Seventy-nine-year-old Gerald Clark uses a cane to get around, but that hasn't slowed him down from pursuing his passion - a veteran's nursing home for Knox County.

Officials break ground March 30, marking a nearly nine-year fight by Clark and others to get a home here.

"We're whopping proud they are really going to break ground," said Clark.

U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Knoxville, Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale, World War II veteran Clark and several other area officials have fought for years to get a home in East Tennessee.

Clark, who is with United Veterans of East Tennessee, has told Knox County commissioners that some area veterans have traveled 400 miles round trip to Murfreesboro in Middle Tennessee.

West Tennessee has also had a home for a number of years.

"As WWII veterans, we have seen some of our friends go into nursing care and pass on," Clark said. "They had to go to Nashville, Murfreesboro or Johnson City."

The home slated for just off Pellissippi Parkway has been the subject of political pushes for more than a decade.

In 2002 while campaigning, both Ragsdale and Gov. Phil Bredesen said the home was a priority.

In 2003 it got County Commission approval to the tune of donated land and expenditures of almost $6 million. Another $10.6 million in federal funds are earmarked for the project.

In February 2004, the state General Assembly voted to name the home in honor of former state Sen. Ben Atchley, R-Knoxville, who served in the legislature for 32 years. He also lobbied for the home and spent more than 10 years in the Seebee Reserves in the U.S. Navy Construction Battalion.

"It's going to be a really nice nursing home," Clark said.