In the News - VA Butler Healthcare

ELLWOOD CITY - When Sam Teolis was discharged from the Army after World War II, the G.I. Bill covered his full tuition at the Pittsburgh School of Mortuary Science, which enabled him to open the funeral home he now owns.

And Teolis, a former mayor of Ellwood City, said he wasn't alone.

"There were men who spent four years in the army and went to college while they worked for U.S. Steel," he said. "They wouldn't have been able to go to college otherwise."

The original G.I. Bill, passed in 1944, brought college - previously the near-exclusive domain of the well-to-do - and relative affluence within the reach of former servicemen and women whose families had struggled through the Great Depression only a decade earlier.

U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-4, McCandless Township, stopped in Ellwood City with Teolis, and Tod Conner, of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Butler, to highlight the benefits of a new G.I. Bill.

"There's nothing more important than addressing the needs of our veterans," Altmire said.

The original G.I. Bill's benefits aren't keeping up with spiraling higher education costs, said Tod Conner, Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom outreach coordinator at the Butler VA hospital.

Conner, a Marine Corps veteran of the first Gulf War, said he is seeing newly-returned veterans facing problems paying for college, even with today's G.I. Bill benefits.

Under an updated G.I. Bill, that would change. The updated bill, passed by the U.S. House and Senate, would provide educational benefits of up to $23,846 a year for tuition, books and a monthly stipend for living expenses.

Conner said that amount would cover the tuition and costs to attend the colleges in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education system, including Slippery Rock University.

"Looking at the numbers, it's basically a scholarship," he said. "A lot of the boys and girls are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan with stress disorders and this is one stress we can take off of them."

The tuition benefit, which is attached to a larger bill, is now in conference committee to iron out differences between the proposed laws passed in the House and Senate. Altmire said President George W. Bush has promised to veto the updated G.I. Bill because of cost considerations.

If the president follows through on his veto pledge, Altmire said Congress will attempt to pass the bill over his objection.

"The president feels like this is too expensive," Altmire said. "I can't think of anything more important we could be doing than providing an education for our veterans."

Establishing the expanded tuition benefit would cost $50 billion over 10 years, according to Altmire. He said Congress would look into ways to make up that funding.

Teolis, a beneficiary of the original G.I. Bill, said that law paid for itself by enabling returning World War II veterans to work in professional occupations and earn more money - and pay more income tax - than they would have without a college education.

"The government actually got its money back," he said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Butler is pleased to announce the opening of the Lawrence County VA Outpatient Clinic at its new location in The Ridgewood Professional Centre, 1750 New Butler Road, New Castle, PA . A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 25, 2008. The ceremony will be followed by an open house and health fair.

The Lawrence County VA Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) opened in 1999. Since that time the clinic has offered primary care and limited behavioral health services in several New Castle locations and in Ellwood City.

VA staff provide services on an appointment basis at the new location in New Castle Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The expansion of primary care services from two to five days a week will meet the growing demands of veterans requesting services in Lawrence County which was previously inhibited by limited clinic space. The new location also offers group behavioral health services and will provide the VA with an opportunity to evaluate the need for other specialty services in this location.

Following the ribbon cutting ceremony an open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. will allow veterans to tour the facility and meet the clinic staff. VA staff from Butler will also be available to provide information regarding:

Free health screenings for blood pressure, weight management including body fat analysis, nutrition, and smoking cessation will also be provided to veterans.

The DAV Transportation Network for Lawrence County will have volunteers and a DAV van on site to address any issues and concerns regarding transportation.

Veterans that previously received care through VA Butler at the Lawrence County CBOC in New Castle or Ellwood City, PA will have their care automatically transferred to the new location in New Castle. Other veterans currently enrolled at the Butler Veterans Affairs Medical Center that desire to have their care transferred to the CBOC may request transfer during the health fair or contact their current primary care team health technician in Butler.