6 years, 2 months ago by Scott Hardy
Department heads fail to show for hearing called Monday afternoon
The Illinois Senate Veterans Affairs Committee met Tuesday afternoon about a 2016 engineering report that says repairs to the plumbing at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy would cost less than what the committee was told earlier this month. It didn't meet for very long, though.
The hearing lasted for only a half hour, after llinois Department of Veterans Affairs Director Erica Jeffries, Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Nirav Shah and the Director of the Capital Development Board all failed to show up for the hearing. The Committee said it would meet to sort out the differences between the report, released Friday by the Associated Press, and what Jeffries told the committee at its' last joint hearing. The report estimated it would cost $8 million to repair the Home's plumbing, while Jeffries told the Committee the cost would be $30 million.
A Veterans Affairs Department spokesperson later disputed the AP story, saying the estimate didn't cover all the Vets Home's plumbing.
