Smoking tent us back up, but is it legal?

Well, once again, the veterans at the veterans home will face yet another winter of having to go outside and o travel a short distance to a smoking tent set up in the Big Pavilion, just outside of Kozy Corners.

While other retirement homes have exemptions to the non smoking indoors rule, the Michigan veterans home in Grand Rapids does not.

Veterans have to go outside, to an area about 50 feet by 25 feet wide, that is heated. It is protected from the wind and snow and weather by tarps that form a tent.

Now some people question whether or not this thing is even legal, for fire safety purposes.  There are 2 entryway/exits made up of hanging plastic sheets.  Easy to get into, easy to get out of. Still, other places have exemptions to the smoking rule, why not the Veterans home - these guys earned it.

Wzzm, Good start, but when are you going to address some of the other issues?

Wzzm 13 has done a number of articles about the lack of proper care of our veterans at the home.

But they post them during the 11pm news. IF it is important for our community, why are they not showing them at the 6pm news show?

And when are they going to address some of the other issues?


Rick Snyder didn't hand pick Sara. Jim Dunn changed the qualifications for the job of Administrator of the Home so that Sara could have the job. Sara Dunne was Jim Dunn's and Ernie Meyers puppet. She was the only person that they could push under the bus, like they have done, and be left unscathed by the results. I see Sara, down the road, having to face criminal charges.

If the new CEO found some J2S employees sleeping on the job as reported by several veterans at the home,  that isn't a 30 days without pay punishment, its an immediate termination. Why weren't they fired? Why didn't J2S fire them? 


I see the members of the Board of Managers sitting back and smiling over all this coverage. When are we going to get to the real issue of what is wrong at the Home? When are the numerous deaths with questions going to be reported? When is the fact that the doctors at the Home have been instructed to drug the patients rather than allow them to live a life with some normalcy?

When is there going to be a report about all the missing money? By my calculations, there is close to $1.4 million that is unaccountable on the awning.

When is it going to be reported that doctors at the Home are prescribing drugs of a Class 3 nature without a state license to do so?

And the ombudsman issue. When will that be addressed?  Or how veterans discharged from the home are banned from the property and threatened with arrest for trespassing if they go to visit friends who are still at the home?

The "big brother" internet policy of the home blocking veterans from going to some sites? And what about the internet? The homes internet is practically non existent.

Or the crap the volunteers have to go through? I can post their 3 page form they have to use, (or did use at one time).

And the abuse of the veterans by the state imposed Guardians and/or Conservators?

Lastly, when is somebody going to do a report on the fact that my friends veteran was murdered? Murdered by their use of State imposed Guardians, and incompetent doctors who forced him to take a drug he did not need which lead to his death? How many other veterans have died under similar circumstances? I bet more than just a handful.

I hope WZZM continues its investigation and eventually addresses some of these issues. If not then this whole thing is just another waste of time and our veterans will continue to suffer at the hands of the State. And I for one will start to work to get this place shut down by the VA.