BUTLER TWP — More than 150 people gathered Friday in the VA Butler Healthcare Auditorium to hear about the future of Building 1 at the VA campus on New Castle Road.

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-3rd, called for the meeting after questioning in June the building of a health care center for outpatient services by a private developer. That building is to be leased back to the VA for 20 years at a cost of $6.6 million annually.

Construction is to begin this fall and be completed in 2014.

Mike Moreland, director of VISN 4, the Veterans Integrated Services Network, which oversees Veterans Affairs medical care in Pennsylvania and several other states, and John Gennaro, the director of VA Butler, presented a history of the health care center before taking questions from the crowd.

Among those questions were why has the VA spent so much money on Building 1 when a new building will be built, and what will happen to Building 1 when it is vacant in two years?

Moreland, who once served as director of the Butler campus, said in the past five years, the VA has spent millions to upgrade parts of the campus’ main building, Building 1, “but only to keep it a safe building.”

“We replaced the windows, at $2 million, because the old ones were leaking and causing mold and mildew in the building. We have done what we need to keep the building safe, but not everything that needs to be done.”

He added that VISN and Butler VA asked for the new health center and lease because they didn’t believe the Butler VA would be awarded an estimated $120 million needed to build a new VA facility, nor would putting more money into Building 1, which was constructed in 1939, make good fiscal sense.

“Health care has changed. It isn’t what it was even 20 years ago. Now it is mostly outpatient care, and that’s what this center will provide.

“I’d call this thinking outside of the box in order to provide the best health care to veterans that we can,” Moreland said of the new building.

With the health care center’s construction contract approved, the VA is beginning to think about what to do with Building 1, which includes using it for something else or tearing it down.

Taking down the building was the option least desirable to those in attendance. Some told Kelly they approved the new building, but were against tearing down the existing building.

Art Greathead of Butler said it would be a waste to tear down the old building.

Moreland several times disparaged the current building, calling it a former asset and “now it’s a liability. If you ask anyone if they want a building with lead, asbestos and bad electricity, they’ll say no. They want a clean space.”

Ron Zorn of Butler and George Vorel of Center Township both questioned the wisdom of paying millions of dollars over 20 years for a lease on the new building and at the end have no assets to show for that money.

“Why can’t there be a lease-to-own set up?” Vorel asked.

Rep. Kelly of Butler said that is a good question and something he and his staff are trying to answer.

“This is just the first step,” Kelly said after the meeting, which lasted almost 2½ hours. “Now we have questions from the public that need to be answered and more of a direction to go, and we will be back to continue the process.”

In June, the VA announced it had awarded the health care center construction and management to Westar Development of Aurora, Ohio.

Westar will buy property, complete construction and then lease the new facility to the VA for $124 million during a 20-year contract.

The company’s proposal includes buying the almost 16-acre Deshon Woods site from Butler Township on Route 68, and an additional 6 acres from the Butler County Memorial Park and Mausoleum.

Westar has had an option to buy the Deshon Woods from the township for $2.38 million. It is unknown how much the cemetery property will cost.

Westar will build a 168,000-square-foot, three-story building. It will include primary care, speciality care, dental, diagnostic, laboratory, mental health, pathology, podiatry, optometry, pharmacy, physical rehabilitation, women’s health, radiology and ancillary services.

It will have more than 1,300 parking spaces.

VA Butler Healthcare’s more than 500 VA employees will move to the new facility when it opens, Gennaro said Friday.