$2 million veterans shelter close to opening in East St. Louis

Kurt Daesch, the executive director of the St. Clair County Veterans Assistance Commission, and longtime skeptic of the project, said that after a recent tour of the facility at 5020 State St., he is convinced the project can succeed after all.

"I think it’s finally going to work out," Daesch said.

And once the center opens its doors, Daesch said he is confident it will find the money to keep going.

"They have some fairly big players that are going to line up," he said. "There were certain aspects that I wasn’t comfortable with, and they answered the questions I had on those aspects."

At the time it was scheduled to open in early 2003, the Joseph Center — named for president and founder Martha Watts’ late husband — was to provide a home for up to two years to clients who would receive life skills and job training along with drug and alcohol counseling. The start-up cost was estimated at $500,000.

But Eagles Nest later revised the cost estimate to $1.5 million, causing a money crunch. Progress has also been disrupted by contractor disputes and extensive interior work that needed to be redone, including the demolition of walls inside the structure because the rooms they formed were slightly too small.

Over the last six years, Eagles Nest has provided, and retracted, a series of opening dates for the shelter.

In a Dec. 9 letter to Ray Willis, director of the HUD regional office in Chicago, Martha Watts — Eagles Nest’s president — wrote that the project contractor has estimated project construction "can be completed by April 2009," while "our revised opening date will be in June 2009."

But unexpected delays that occurred late last year, including the theft of air conditioning units and fundraising problems, pushed that deadline further back.

Rebecca Boykin, a spokeswoman for The Illinois Housing Development Authority in Springfield, which has provided the project with a $870,000 low-interest loan, said her agency’s on-site inspector visited April 28 and reported that progress was going well.

"It seems like work is moving along," Boykin said. "We are anticipating everything could be wrapped up as early as next month in June."

Don Johnson, an East St. Louis home builder, took over as project manager in January 2008 after the last project manager quit in a funding dispute.

Johnson said only a few "punch list" items, such as caulking, mirror installations and the acquisition of furniture, remain before work at the former Army Reserve center is completed.

"We’re kind of doing the finishing touches right now," Johnson said. "The floors are done, the walls are painted, we just have to drop the ceiling tile in place, which is a day’s work."

In 2001, the Joseph Center’s original startup cost was going to be about $500,000, including $300,000 from U.S. departments of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs.

Contact reporter Mike Fitzgerald at mfitzgerald@bnd.com or 239-2533.