Expansion at Twin Ports VA Clinic under negotiation

The Twin Ports Veterans Administration Clinic in Superior could soon be expanded to benefit veterans from northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin.

Talks are ongoing, so Superior St. Mary’s Hospital Chief Operating Officer Chris Russ is hesitant to give details.

“That would be for the veteran’s clinic to be able to share that information,” Russ said. “Right now, we’ve got the negotiations going on for the property itself. They’re part of our campus and we work together in a partnership. They’ll be able to go into more details later on when they firm up some of the other opportunities that they’re going to be offering.”

While the services and benefits coming with the expansion are still under wraps, Russ says it would have a major impact on veterans in the Northland, even those living as far away as International Falls.

“So what you’re looking at is that whole northern Wisconsin and Minnesota; anything that’s truly northern where it’s easier to travel to Superior than it is down to Minneapolis,” Russ said. “The veteran’s clinic is the closest in Superior, then the next one is Minneapolis.”

With the end of the war in Iraq, veterans are returning home. Department of Veterans Affairs Deputy Secretary Jason Johns, a veteran himself, says he is willing to get behind the VA Clinic expansion to help soldiers coming home.

“We support that,” Johns said. “We’re trying to do state and federal VA partnering anytime we can and I think that’s a great partnership.”

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