A Veterans Affairs clinic in Santa Maria won't be opening until late summer, six months later than once scheduled, partly because the VA ordered changes in the building and has not yet accepted its condition.

VA officials said in November that the clinic would be open by March, but construction setbacks have pushed the opening date tentatively into August, said contractor Michael John Dick of Aardex, which also owns the 36,000-square-foot structure.

The VA will reportedly lease the building for at least 15 years at $1.1 million a year.

City officials gave the building their stamp of approval in March, but VA officials who inspected the building earlier this week came up with a “punch list” of construction details left to finish, Dick said Thursday.

About 50 blue tape marks around the building indicate anything from a tiny scratch on the wall to restrooms without room numbers, he said.

The work on the “punch list” items - which he says is standard in government projects - can take up to 60 days with an additional 45 days to furnish and staff the clinic.

Other than that, Dick said, unexpected weather and orders to make changes in the building delayed the original finish date. Heavy rain flooded the work site in October, and a lab was expanded to almost four times its original size, he said.

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Several calls Wednesday and Thursday to the VA's office in Los Angeles were not returned.

Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, who has been a strong advocate for a local clinic in Santa Maria, reacted to the delays in a written statement.

“It is unfortunate that there have been some delays in the opening of this new facility,” Capps said. “Fortunately veterans will not lose any medical services during this period because the Santa Barbara clinic will remain open and offering the same services until the Santa Maria clinic is ready to care for patients.”

Vietnam War veteran Bob Hatch, a Chamber of Commerce executive and advocate for local veterans, said local veterans are “waiting anxiously” for the local clinic to open.

Among those anxiously waiting is Joe Chavira of Santa Maria.

The veteran of the Army 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team says he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and to treat it he must go to a VA clinic in Los Angeles about twice a month.

“It's a whole day operation,” said the 76-year-old, who's been using the LA clinic for the past year.

A typical visit to the doctor begins around 6:30 a.m. when he must drive to Santa Barbara to catch an 8 a.m. bus to Los Angeles for a three-hour trip, he said.

Chavira doesn't know yet whether he'll get the psychiatric treatment he needs locally. But he says other local veterans will be relieved to have a clinic closer.

“It gets tough for us driving all the way down there,” he said. “We're not exactly rolling on money.”

The Santa Maria outpatient clinic - which will be operated by the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System - is expected to be a full-care facility for veterans to see their primary-care doctors.

The single-story building surrounded by 206 parking spaces at 1500 E. Main St. houses 45 primary care treatment rooms, five dental rooms, a lab, an X-ray room, and audiology and optometry treatment rooms, among other services.

The VA estimates a population of 90,000 veterans in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, according to 2006 figures from the Census Bureau.

The clinic in Santa Barbara serves just under 30,000 veterans and San Luis Obispo serves nearly 25,000, a VA spokeswoman said in November.

Luis Ernesto Gomez can be reached at 739-2218, or lgomez@

santamariatimes.com.

April 6, 2007