Rep Grego Files Legislation to Keep Veterans Center in Talihina

OKLAHOMA CITY – State Rep. Jim Grego today announced he has filed legislation to stop the transfer of an Oklahoma Veterans Center from Talihina.

House Bill 1149 would eliminate the authorization to transfer the center that was first granted by legislation passed in 2017 and signed into law by former Gov. Mary Fallin.

“This center is important to the veterans who are housed there, to their family members who visit them, to the hundreds of employees who work there and to the community of Talihina, which relies on this significant employer,” said Grego (R-Wilburton).

The relocation was authorized by the passage of House Bill 3042 in April, 2017. It was then announced last fall that the Oklahoma Veterans Commission and the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs would relocate the 175-bed, long-term veterans care center from Talihina to Sallisaw within a time-frame of three to five years. The new bill would repeal that decision.

Several veterans in the House who supported the legislation said the aging Talihina center was not viable in the long term. As part of the transfer process bids were sought from sites with existing useable structures in order to reduce the need for and cost of new construction.

However the Commissioners then voted to award the new facility to Sallisaw, a project that requires entirely new construction on undeveloped land. Commissioners declined to vote on any other bids.

To Don Faulkner, former Talihina mayor and current town trustee, that decision makes no sense. “It’s really frustrating for us,” Faulkner told the Journal Record. “We have 650 acres here they can build on, so they don’t need to move it out of town.”

Furthering Faulkner’s frustration, the Sallisaw decision ignored the voices of the center’s employees. The Talihina facility currently has some 275 staff, very few of whom will be able to make the 146-mile roundtrip to Sallisaw when the facility relocates.

Faulkner added that closing the current center would cause serious harm to the Talihina community and possibly cause the town to default on construction bonds that covered part of recent upgrades to the municipal drinking water plant.

In a prepared statement Grego added that modernizing and upgrading the current facility would cost taxpayers less than building something entirely new. “There is no reason the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs can’t update this existing facility to better accommodate the needs of its residents.”

House Bill 1149 will receive its first reading on February 4th.

Rep. Jim Grego serves District 17 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, which covers parts of Latimer, Le Flore and Pittsburg Counties.