Dec. 1, 2009 — If everything goes according to plan, local veterans, military men and families in Lassen County will have a new place to go for their day-to-day ailments in April of 2010.   

That’s because of the extremely fast pace on the development of the new veteran’s clinic off of Johnstonville Road. The clinic is set to be the newest clinic for the VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System, encompassing 20 counties in both Northeastern California and Northern Nevada. The clinic will mark the fourth for the system, which has opened clinics in Auburn, Calif., Fallon, Nev. and Minden, Nev. The building is owned by Dale and Linda Soulé, who provided the property its being built on and much of the funding for the project, along with Tri-Counties Bank. The clinics are operated out of the Lugaris VA Medical Center in Reno, Nev.   

The Susanville clinic is being built by J Williams Construction out of Redding, Calif., a company specializing in commercial building construction. Dale Soulé said Williams and his company have been contracted for a number of his businesses, including the Alliance for Workforce Development building on Main Street.   

The director of the VASNHCS, Kurt Schlegelmilch, came up to see for himself the amount of progress made on the project on Thursday, Nov. 19, along with many of his management staff. Jeff Williams gave them a tour of the building, which at the time was little more than a frame for the eventual location of all the rooms. As Williams started to walk the group through the floor plan however, the eventual scope of the project was revealed.   

Psychologist with the VASNHCS Thuy Boardman said physicians and assistants are currently being recruited, both in the Reno area and in the surrounding communities. Boardman said the initial staff would probably number about five people, including a physician, nurses and administrative staff. As time progresses, that staff may eventually go as high as 12 people.   

“When its ready to be opened, we want to have some staff out here, ready to go,” Sclegelmilch said. “And that means bringing them in even sooner and getting them some training down in Reno with us. We’re delighted with this. This came together great, and its fantastic to see how much has been done in such a short amount of time.”    

The process for bringing the clinic started when the Soulés came before the planning commission for two reasons; Requesting to divide a piece of their property from about a 17-acre parcel into four parcels. The second request was for the approval of an architectural and site plan review for the construction of an office complex on one of the parcels. Both requests were granted at the June 30 planning commission meeting.   

The main reason the Soulés wanted to get this project up and running so quickly was because they were tired of seeing the veteran’s in Susanville and Lassen County continually bused into Reno to receive medical treatment.   

Williams said his crew is ahead of schedule to get the clinic running by April, but the ensuing winter weather will still have a part to play.