Canfield proposes to get VA clinic

March 12, 2019 at 12:00a.m.

CANFIELD

American Legion Post 177 officers have thrown support behind the city’s application to bring a 30,000-square-foot Veterans Affairs clinic to the city.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs intends to build a new outpatient clinic in the Youngstown area – with construction possibly beginning in 2020 – and fielded proposals from area municipalities last year.

Chuck Coleman, first vice commander of the Canfield post, said though the competition will be “stiff,” putting the clinic in Canfield makes sense demographically. A survey of nearly 10,000 veterans who visited the VA clinic along Belmont Avenue in Youngstown shows more than a third of the patients live in Canfield or its immediate surrounding areas.

“Canfield makes good sense for the clinic,” Coleman said. “If you look at the defined area that the clinic covers, it sits, from a population standpoint, at the center of that area. ... It’s closer to that underserved area of Mahoning County.”

Legion leadership voted unanimously last week to draft a letter of support for the city’s application, Coleman said.

The city has received similar letters from Legion posts in Lowellville and Lake Milton, the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Ellsworth and U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson of Marietta, R-6th, City Manager Wade Calhoun said.

“We’ve been reaching out to solicit letters of support from all the different veterans organizations to support the new clinic for the VA to be built in the city of Canfield,” he said.

The city’s application, made in November, offers up a 2.72-acre tract between 611 and 621 E. Main St., near the intersection of Hunters Woods Boulevard served by Western Reserve Transit Authority, “easily accessible” from state Routes 11, 46 and 62 and close to two emergency rooms.

“The city of Canfield has embarked on an initiative to become a ‘veteran-friendly city’ which includes providing for public services and a quality of life that is not only conducive to our general population, but also specifically providing additional amenities to the veteran population,” the application reads.

Calhoun said the department has not indicated when it will select a location for the clinic.