CENTER TWP — Congressman Mike Kelly, R-3rd, will be the keynote speaker today at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for VA Butler Healthcare's new health care center on North Duffy Road named Abie Abraham Va Clinic.

The invitation-only event will begin at 10 a.m. outside the facility's main entrance, and feature comments from Kelly and Vietnam War veteran and former Steelers running back Rocky Bleier, who will deliver a tribute to World War II veteran Abie Abraham, for whom the center is being named. The ceremony will include the display of Abraham's uniform and other citations drawn up in his honor, which will be put on display inside the center's lobby.

Other speakers will include T. Michael Scott, the president of Cambridge Healthcare Solutions, which built and owns the center, David Cord, the executive director of VA Butler Healthcare, and Dr. Michael D. Adelman, the network director of VA services for the region that includes Pittsburgh and Butler.

The center, which is about 1.4 miles from the VA's New Castle Road campus in Butler Township, is a two story, 168,000-square-foot outpatient facility that will bring together primary care, specialty care, women's health, mental health, physical rehabilitation and a variety of other medical services.

The ribbon-cutting will not serve as the center's functional opening, and VA programs will continue to operate out of the New Castle Road campus for the rest of the week. The center will be open to patients starting in early September, VA officials say.

VA Butler Healthcare serves more than 35,000 veterans in a five-county region, and enrolls more than 25,000 veterans in various programs and services, according to system officials.