Safety issue at Grand Rapids Home for Veterans need to be addressed.

While construction at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans continues, a safety issue has come up that has a few people wondering why the issue has not yet been resolved.

As part of the construction of the new home, the Front parking lot of the older facility had to be expanded and new lighting put in.

The problem is, the new lighting has not been put in yet, and the parking lot has been finished for a number of weeks.

The Base for the new lights have been in place, but where are the lights?  A recent visitor came to the home after 9pm and found the area to be extremely dark and was hard to see people and things.  "The sidewalk lighting is not enough" the visitor told me. "they need to put in the parking area lights".

The question now is, when are the new lights going to be installed?

GRH4V construction Update

Ok folks.. got some new pictures of the construction of the new Veterans homes, at the Grand Rapids location. Pictures of where the old Rankin building once stood, where the old picnic area was, and where the old back parking lot was..  They are putting in the footings for the new buildings now. Everything humming right along..  First pic shows the area between the Grotto and the Main entrance building where Rankin once was. Second pic is the area where the Rankin "duck pond landing" smoking area, and horse shoe pits were.. 4th pic shows the old rear parking lots, and the last pic with the 2 red lines added, show where Rankin building once stood.

Construction along with destruction

Look carefully. You can see on the first pic, where they are already laying the foundations of one of the buildings over by the old VA clinic. Middle pic is more clean up of the Rankin building area, and the last pic is some of the underground sewer pipes and stuff being put in where the picnic area and bandstand once was.

Good bye Rankin

Well, the De-struction is almost complete. Here is what is left of the Rankin building. A building built in the shape of a V for Veteran.  First photo is the pile of rubble that was once home to over 400 people, taken from the front main entrance area. The second photo shows the area where the APR room, Kozy Corners and the pavilion used to be. In upper left corner is where the horse shoe pits used to be just outside the duckpond landing. Pic was taken from McKleish 3rd floor (dom unit) laundry room.  Notice the train station is still standing! It will not be touched as it is a historical building.