As a chorus of public officials hailed the long-awaited groundbreaking Wednesday on a veterans home in Saticoy, Rick Brandl couldn't help but think of a friend and fellow veteran.

"He died two weeks ago. His health really deteriorated toward the end," said Brandl, an Army veteran. "Think of how much easier those last months would have been for him and his wife with a place like this."

The Saticoy facility will provide 60 beds for veterans who need special medical care. It also will offer daytime services for an additional 50 veterans.

Full-scale construction is scheduled to begin in July, with the first veterans expected to move in by early 2009.

About 15 years in the making, the facility is part of a $300 million effort by the state Department of Veterans Affairs to serve Southern California veterans who now have to travel hundreds of miles for government housing. A similar-size home will be built in Lancaster, along with a 400-bed, multistory medical center in West Los Angeles.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is contributing $180 million and the state $120 million to build the three homes. The price tag for the Saticoy veterans home is $26.5 million.

"This is great day for our veterans and for this community," said Roger Brautigan, undersecretary of the state VA.

Like many of Wednesday's speakers, he applauded local veterans and veterans' organizations for their patience and perseverance as the project's scope changed and its funding was threatened amid political jockeying over the three different sites. The Saticoy home initially was envisioned to house 400.

"We defeated the German army in one-third the time it took to get this veterans home here," Brautigan said.

The facility will be built on roughly half of a 22-acre vacant parcel on Telephone Road near Wells Road and across from the Saticoy Regional Golf Course. A portion of the property, a Chumash burial ground, also will feature a Native American veterans memorial.

Chumash representatives Julie Tumamait and Raudell Banuelos blessed the ground as part of Wednesday's ceremony, which drew about 300 people, including many active and retired military personnel.

Ventura County is home to one of the largest concentrations of veterans in the nation 60,000 to 65,000 with an average age of 65, according to the county Veterans Services office.

Over the next 15 years, the number of veterans in California, now an estimated 2.3 million, will decline. By 2020, however, the number of veterans over the age of 85 will surge. That age group will need the kinds of special care food, laundry, medical services that the Saticoy home will provide, officials say.

"We believe this facility truly will be a model," said Chuck Dorman, director of the federal VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, which participated in the design phase.

At California's veterans homes, residents pay a percentage of their income, if any, or monthly fees of up to $2,500, whichever is less.

"This facility will be filled almost instantly," said LeRoy Andrews, 86, a local World War II veteran who was among the early champions of the project.

Andrews said he's received phone calls from hundreds of interested veterans or their families. Currently, only a veterans home in Barstow has openings. Homes in San Diego and Yountville in Northern California have long waiting lists.

Applications for admission at the Saticoy veterans home will be accepted at the start of construction in July, state officials said.

The Saticoy project's funding was a near-constant target for elimination over the years, said state schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell, who fought for the home when he was a state senator. The support and tenacity of local officials and veteran advocates kept it off the chopping block.

"They drove me nuts," O'Connell said during his keynote speech Wednesday, drawing a few laughs. "The bottom line is we are here and we made it. This is going to be a very popular, successful and desirable home for a long time."

On the Net:

http://www.cdva.ca.gov