TOMS RIVER – It’s been a long time coming, but a new date has been announced for the opening of the Toms River Veterans Administration clinic.
The opening is now scheduled for October 22, 2024, said Xiomara Johnson, a Navy veteran who serves as Deputy Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
She explained to The Toms River Times that the revised timeline is due to “recent advancements in the project, including secured funding and a finalized lease agreement with the lessor. We anticipate that completing the remaining punch list items will take approximately 4 to 5 weeks, leading to this new tentative opening date.”
A previous date had been July 16, but even then it was known that the date was tentative and subject to change.
The building’s official address is 1051 Hooper Avenue, and there’s an entrance to the parking lot from that road. There’s another entrance on Caudina Avenue, which is the back road past two banks that leads to the Seacourt Pavilion. When groundbreaking ceremonies took place in 2022, the expectation was that it was going to open in spring of 2024.
Currently, veterans travel to Brick’s James J. Howard Outpatient Clinic for their needs. They have complained that the facility is understaffed and that it doesn’t have enough parking. Also, some of them have to travel up to East Orange for certain services.
There were a few years when the VA was working on choosing the location, and there was red tape that stretched out the process. Multiple towns vied for the opportunity to host the new “Community Based Outpatient Clinic.”
The same site was previously selected by the VA in 2019, but the prospective developer at that time declined the lease in early 2020. This caused the VA to restart the site selection process.
The new building will be about twice the size as the one in Brick, measuring 68,000 square feet. It will neighbor county social services as well. There is also a bus stop and other amenities nearby.
Officials at the groundbreaking said that the building will enhance services currently provided, and will also add more. Some of the specialties noted during the presentation was primary care, mental health, dental, podiatry, and women’s health, which is the fastest growing department.
On the new building, women’s health has its own entrance. There’s also an entrance for ambulance pick-up. A road around the outskirts of the property could one day link to the social services buildings nearby.
