The Colonel Robert L. Howard nursing home is expected to be at full capacity by September or October of this year.

There are 92 veterans currently residing at the residency. Approximately two veterans are being added each week to the assisted living portion of the facility with six being admitted into the skilled nursing and memory care.

The facility is the fourth for the state. The others are in Huntsville, Bay Minette and Alexander City.

Each of the other three are full, with about a year’s waiting list of about a year for those wishing to reside in them.

The Pell City home, named for one of the country’s most decorated Vietnam veterans, offers 254 total rooms, with 174 for skilled nursing and memory care residents.

As an economic benefit to the area, approximately 800 people will be employed once the home is at capacity.

The home is set up in a screen concept, set up in neighborhoods and each neighborhood is set up in houses with 12-14 rooms in each house.

Veterans who want to live at the long-term care facility are offered their own private bathroom, something unusual in such a facility.

There are four women currently at the home.

For veterans to be admitted to the home, they must be honorably discharged from the military with a minimum of 90 days of service during which one of those days during wartime. They must meet Veterans Affairs requirements and have been a resident of the state of Alabama for the past 12 months.

Applications can be obtained through any veterans’ service offices throughout the county.

The average cost is $24 a day, or $744 a month, relatively inexpensive compared to other facilities at other facilities. For service members with 70 percent or greater service affected, there are no fees involved to reside at the home without any means test involved.

The home is 240,000 square feet and sits on 27 acres.