A home for those who have served our country will soon be erected in Pell City.

The Colonel Robert L. Howard Veterans’ Home is the first facility of its kind to be built in 15 years.

Admiral W. Clyde Marsh, who said the cutting-edge home would offer the best in living conditions for its future residents, thanked St. Clair and its Economic Development Council for donating 27 acres for the facility.

The home will consist of several “neighborhoods,” offering everything from an Alzheimer’s wing to apartment-style living for America’s former soldiers.

The neighborhoods will branch off a grand entryway and each wing will resemble a single-family home or condominium-style quarters.

The building will have a 200,000 square-foot footprint and will offer:

*a two-story dorm holding 80 residents, with each floor having a living room and dining room as well as a social area

* Two houses, each holding 12 residents in the Alzheimer’s wing

* Each neighborhood will have three houses, with each one having 14 private rooms with a window and a private bathroom

* a chapel, library, barbershop and beauty salon, a sports bar, a Town Center and receiving area, kitchen and major cafeteria and Dept. of Veterans’ Affairs offices

The nursing home will cost $41 million, be built by Doster Construction Co. out of Birmingham and is expected to be completed by the spring of 2012.

“We’re really excited about this project and we’re ready to rock and roll,” Marsh said.

Marsh praised Gov. Bob Riley for being “the first to say, ‘Let’s build this nursing home,’” and thanked the 14-person board of veterans’ affairs for their efforts in continuing to help veterans. “These fine ladies and gentlemen eat, sleep and dream of helping veterans,” Marsh said.

St. Clair County, Pell City and Marsh were each thanked for their commitments in securing federal funds for the nursing home by Ken Rollins, Vice Chairman of Veterans’ Affairs.

St. Clair’s County Commission Chairman Stan Batemon offered up his service number before asking several members in the audience theirs, each responding with their number. “I’ve yet to run into a former service member who does not know his service number,” he said.

Batemon, a Vietnam veteran, recalled the novel “We Were Soldiers Once… And Young” by retired Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore. “We’re not young anymore,” he said. “Our country is willing to invest in us; that just swells me up with pride, to say the least. All gave some and we’re here for those who gave all. We gave our youth, many gave of our health and now our country is giving back to us. What a great country.”

Batemon continued, “We love our country and we would die for it; and those who lived were continuing through the rest of our lives welcoming each other home. So I want to say on belhalf of St. Clair County and our veterans: Welcome home.”

Don Smith, St. Clair’s Economic Development Council Executive Director, praised Batemon, former Pell City mayor Adam Stocks and former EDC head Ed Garner, Jr., who made the initial presentation that brought the nursing home to the county. “It’s going to be a game changer,” he said of the nursing home being on campus next to a new St. Vincent’s St. Clair hospital and a growing Jefferson State Community College.

Pell City Mayor Bill Hereford said the new nursing home signifies a new direction for his city and St. Clair County.