Durbin, Obama urging VA to occupy vacant Spring Valley hospital
By Greg Stanmar
gregstanmar@comcast.net
SPRING VALLEY -- The federal Veterans Affairs Department was urged Wednesday to take over a soon-to-be-vacant hospital in Spring Valley for a VA hospital, but the move was called political and impractical by LaSalle County veterans affairs officer Marty Rue.
U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama jointly issued a letter Wednesday urging VA Secretary James Peake to accept the offer of St. Margaret’s Hospital in Spring Valley. They said the VA should buy the building because “too many Illinois veterans drive too far to receive care at a VA facility.”
The facility would help veterans in the Twin Cities, Peoria, the Quad Cities and Rockford to avoid driving into Chicago or Iowa City, they said.
The proposal “is strictly political” and “fiscally irresponsible,” Rue said.
St. Margaret’s, 30 miles from Streator, announced in January it intended to build a $90 million replacement hospital nearby rather than attempt further renovation. It offered its old site to the VA at a price to be negotiated.
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