VA seeking bigger space for Macon health clinic

The VA outpatient clinic in Macon is expected to relocate within the next year.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently issued a solicitation for proposals for a new space for the center that would be almost double the current size. The deadline for proposals closed Dec. 4.

The solicitation sought roughly 17,000 square feet of space. The current clinic on Thomaston Road is about half that size -- about 9,000 square feet.

"We have just way outgrown it, and we have to have some more space so we can keep enacting our programs and get more veterans in," said Frank Jordan, spokesman for the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin.

The new location could be an existing building, or a landowner could build one for the VA. It would be leased for up to 10 years.

The clinic offers primary care and counseling services to military veterans to help avoid trips to the Dublin hospital, at least 45 minutes from Macon.

Maryalice Morro, director of the Dublin center, said the new clinic is necessary because of a growing need in recent years.

The clinic, which has been at its current location since 2008, is seeing about 6,300 veterans annually with about 20,000 visits. That's up about 15 percent in the past five years, according to the VA. That includes about a 26-percent growth in the number of female veterans seen.

Morro said she didn't know how many proposals had been received. The proposals will be evaluated, and she hopes to start looking at properties in early January.

"Our desire is to choose a location that is central to the majority of veterans who live within that area," she said.

Morro cited Eisenhower Parkway as one area with some available space that could be the right location for the clinic.

She said the Macon clinic is especially important because it's one of the few in the 52-county area that's covered by the Dublin hospital and also has public transportation available.

The clinic is different from the Vet Center on Riverside Drive in Macon. That center is geared toward helping veterans with benefits issues, while the clinic is for medical care.

The lease at the current clinic location expires in early 2017, and Morro said the new location would be ready by then. She said operations would move over a weekend so there would be no interruption of service.

A similar move for a bigger location also is expected for the VA clinic in Perry. That move is not as immediate, because the lease at the Perry clinic doesn't expire until 2018.

To contact writer Wayne Crenshaw, call 256-9725.

This story was originally published December 12, 2015 at 8:25 PM with the headline "VA seeking bigger space for Macon health clinic ."