TOMS RIVER — It’s a project many years in the making.
And just in time for May’s Military Appreciation Month, ground was broken to mark the start of construction for the new Veterans Administration Clinic in Toms River, slated to open in spring 2024.
The 68,000-square-foot clinic will be located at 1050 Hooper Ave., off Caudina Avenue adjacent to the Seacourt Pavilion and close to Ocean County Mall. It is more than double the size of the James J. Howard Outpatient Clinic on Route 70 in Brick.
Veterans and advocacy groups have lobbied for an expanded clinic for years, pointing out that many former service members have been forced to travel to East Orange for services, or faced lengthy wait times in to see specialists.
It will also include 480 parking spaces, a plus for veterans who have long complained of difficulties parking at the Brick site. It will offer veterans primary health care, women’s care, dental care, mental health counseling and physical therapy.
Mayor Maurice B. “Mo” Hill Jr., served 35 years in the U.S. Navy, retiring in 2005 as a rear admiral; Hill lobbied strongly for the VA to be located in Toms River. He wore his service dress white uniform to the groundbreaking ceremony May 16, and brought along a copy of his draft card from 1965 for the occasion.
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Hill noted that the majority of military members are not career officers but instead are those who either were drafted in the past, or have enlisted for a period of time since the military became a volunteer force.
“When they take that oath they are giving the government a blank check to go anywhere, at any time, in defense of our precious freedoms,” Hill said. “Our job is to repay that check that the government cashed by providing for their medical needs when they return home.”
Hill long argued that the Hooper Avenue site was the best in the county for a VA clinic, as “it’s literally the perfect location that presents our veterans with one-stop shopping,”
The clinic will be adjacent to a new 121,000-square-foot, three-story building that will house Ocean County’s Board of Social Services, as well as the county’s Veterans Service Bureau. County officials broke ground for the new social services building last summer.
The township has been working with the county to connect the two sites for easy access. Hill was joined at the groundbreaking by VA officials, Ocean County Commissioners Gary Quinn, Bobbi Jo Crea, Ginny Haines and Joseph Vicari, Toms River council members and several local mayors, along with members of George P. Vanderveer American Legion Post 129 in Toms River.
Hill had special praise for township Planner Dave Roberts’ work on the project.
Watch Hill talk about Lomell’s story in the Veterans Day video above.
Hill and Toms River council members have requested that the new clinic be named for Leonard G. “Bud” Lomell, a Toms River native and highly decorated U.S. Army Ranger who scaled the cliffs at Pointe-du-Hoc in Normandy on D-Day to help find and disable heavy German artillery that could have been used to shell troops on Utah Beach.
Hill praised the work of Township Planner
Ocean County has about 34,000 veterans, the most in the state, according to U.S. Census Data. Monmouth County has about 24,000, and Burlington County, nearly 27,000.
Toms River was competing with Brick and Lakewood to be the site of the new clinic.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs selected the Toms River site as the location of the new clinic in August, approving a submission made by FD Stonewater, an Arlington, Va.-based firm that is the township’s designated redeveloper for the clinic site.
Read More: New VA clinic to provide better services for veterans