To the editor:<\/p>\n
City of Cape Coral Council Members, Staff, and Candidates \u2014 THANKS\u00a0go\u00a0to ALL of those who helped secure the commitment from HCA Healthcare Inc to build a second hospital in Cape Coral,\u00a0especially the\u00a0City\u2019s Economic and Business Development professionals responsible for recruiting businesses, working with developers, communicating with companies and helping move economic-development projects forward.<\/p>\n
Now that\u00a0HCA has committed to build a new Hospital in Cape Coral, and\u00a0Lee Health has begun building a new Outpatient Center on Veterans Parkway,\u00a0as the area continues to grow rapidly, and the need for more healthcare availability grows along with it, this is offered to\u00a0request the Cape Coral City\u00a0Council show foresight and focus effort to expand the Lee County VA Healthcare Center, by working to get the necessary political commitments, approvals, and\u00a0funding to make it a full service VA Hospital to serve the over 100,000 Veterans in Southwest Florida.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Council\u00a0could begin to foster this non-partisan effort\u00a0by making it a stated goal, through a \u201cproclamation\u201d for example, by giving appropriate direction\u00a0for the City\u2019s Economic Development staff and lobbyists;\u00a0and\u00a0by\u00a0communicating and collaborating with other levels of government staffs\u00a0(like the Lee County Economic Development Office, the Horizon Council & Foundation, and the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs),\u00a0and with our\u00a0elected officials\u00a0in Lee and surrounding counties, as well as with our state and federal senators and congressman, and our governor.\u00a0They could also\u00a0reach out to SWFL veterans organizations\u00a0(examples \u2014 American Legion, VFW, MOAA, VVA,\u00a0AMVETS,\u00a0DAV,\u00a0and the\u00a0Brotherhood of Heroes Resource Center and Museum),\u00a0veteran-owned businesses, the Veterans Business Council,\u00a0and\u00a0Chambers of Commerce in\u00a0Southwest Florida\u00a0with the idea of\u00a0establishing a volunteer\u00a0\u201cSouthwest Florida VA Hospital Task Force.\u201d<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Lee County Board of County Commissioners\u00a0made this effort a\u00a0Strategic Initiative, and their\u00a0Veterans Advisory Committee\u00a0prepared an information sheet.\u00a0Hopefully the Cape Coral City Council will soon\u00a0make this effort both a goal and a priority, and join Lee County and\u00a0the many Floridians who are working to make the Sunshine State the most veteran-friendly, appreciated, and sought after State in the Nation.<\/p>\n
This effort should recognize that there is also land available\u00a0now\u00a0to consider encouraging revival of the Victory Park development plan, or a least the concept, and to consider expanding the concept to include a Veterans Home Campus for independent, assisted, and full nursing and memory care. Plus,\u00a0this effort might spur additional Veteran focused development concepts and ideas in both Cape Coral and our surrounding communities.<\/p>\n
This effort should also recognize that having a VA Hospital in Cape Coral would attract military retirees and future retirees to move to the area and become future homeowners, business owners, or employees, as well as consumers of both medical and other services, like hotels\/motels, rental properties, restaurants, entertainment, educational institutions, and tourist attractions, so\u00a0the Southwest Florida Economy would benefit.<\/p>\n
This effort should additionally recognize the fact that there is land available\u00a0now\u00a0for an expanded VA medical campus in Cape Coral, and that\u00a0there is synergy in having additional medical services available that benefits both veterans and area community members, and tourists. Such synergy can already be seen in other areas of Florida (examples: Tampa\/Orlando\/Miami\/Jacksonville), and other areas of the US (examples -San Antonio TX, Washington DC, San Diego CA, Boston MA ).<\/p>\n
This effort is appropriate for a city that has a history of recognizing Veterans with a\u00a0Veterans Memorial Parkway,\u00a0the\u00a0Veterans Memorial Park at Four Mile Cove Ecological Preserve\u00a0and the\u00a0Veterans City Park,\u00a0plus being designated as a\u00a0Purple Heart City\u00a0(meaning it formally recognizes the sacrifices made by men and women veterans killed or wounded in combat), and\u00a0holding an\u00a0annual Veterans Day Parade.\u00a0Plus, remember the School District of Lee County has the largest JROTC Program in the nation, and Florida Gulf Coast University has a Military and Veteran Success Program.<\/p>\n
As the 25th Anniversary of 9\/11 fast approaches, and we REMEMBER ALL those we lost and THANK ALL those who responded, this request is\u00a0respectfully submitted\u00a0on behalf of the many Veterans who reside in Southwest Florida, and myself,<\/p>\n
Earl H. Morgan Jr.<\/p>\n
USAF Retired<\/p>\n
Cape Coral<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: City of Cape Coral Council Members, Staff, and Candidates \u2014 THANKS\u00a0go\u00a0to ALL of those who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-396767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}