BUTLER TWP — The Veterans Affairs Medical Center has several new buildings planned to help modernize its campus where most services are in buildings built in the 1940s.

But those plans are pending federal funding and not all of the proposals have been approved.

The proposals are:

• A $44 million outpatient center, that was not chosen for approval at the federal level;

• A $7 million drug and alcohol clinic, which likely will be approved, and

• A nursing home that is still being developed.

The outpatient clinic would have moved all of the services offered at the current 70-year-old building to a new facility.

It did not make the funding cut after Congress weighed it against all the other VA proposals in the country.

David Wood, the medical center executive director in Butler, said this was partly because of the money approved for VA clinics that were significantly damaged during this past year's heavy hurricane season.

Wood said the need for the proposed outpatient clinic is because the current building was built decades ago when the emphasis was on in-patient care — which is not a good design today.

"We have tried to retrofit the outpatient care into this setting," said Wood.

More than 19,000 veterans from across Western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio visit the center 120,000 times a year. The Butler center is the only one between Erie and Pittsburgh.

A new outpatient building would have all the specialty services and rehabilitation services that are squeezed into the current building.

Wood said this way people would use an efficient facility designed for that purpose rather than being slowed by the current less-than-ideally configured space.

He said after all the services would be shifted to the outpatient clinic, the VA could use the main building for what it's best suited for — housing patients.

The move would also allow space for the VA to move many of its administrative and financial offices into the main building. Wood said they are currently in temporary housing buildings that were also built in the 1940s.

"There's a good chance that it (the outpatient clinic) will be considered next year," said Wood.

If that happens, the design stage would begin in 2008 and the construction would be in 2009.

Another project under consideration is a $7 million replacement housing unit for drug and alcohol patients.

Wood said it is currently on the list of accepted projects, although the VA has not received the formal go-ahead.

He said, if the project is accepted, the design would begin in 2007 and the construction would be in 2008.

The new domiciliary would serve women for the first time. The current facility was built in the 1940s in a style that only has communal bathrooms for men.

Wood said it would be built in a pod style that would emphasize common areas — a welcome relief, to the narrow hallway passages and lack of shared space now. That would be a great help to group work exercises, which are pivotal in addiction rehabilitation.

The third proposal, the nursing home, has yet to be submitted to the federal government. Wood said, if accepted, the design could begin in 2008 and the construction would be in 2009.

The nursing home would offer rehabilitative services, hospice care, respite care, treatment for dementia and Alzheimer's and a full-time home for those who are disabled with a service-related injury.

Wood said any of these projects could tie into plans by Butler Memorial Hospital to build a new hospital on the VA grounds. But, he said, they are being worked on irregardless of the hospital's ultimate decision.

In December, Butler Memorial proposed to study the idea of a split hospital campus, which put plans to move the hospital to the VA grounds on hold.

The VA Medical Center also hopes to expand the Deshon Place program for homeless veterans and homeless county residents. That is through a partnership with Butler County and Catholic Charities representatives.

Wood said they want to double the number of beds to 20.