4/7/2009 10:35:00 AM Veterans project heads in new direction New leaders focus in on Washington
Jimmie Coulthard
By Bryan Zollman
The proposed veterans village at Oak Ridge north of Sauk Centre has a new name, new leaders and a new direction.
The project is said to be gaining steam toward Washington, as new leaders have emerged and hope to secure federal funding to not only purchase the $3.6 million property, but make significant improvements to its existing structures.
One of those leaders is Jimmie Coulthard, who was in Sauk Centre March 24, speaking to the local Rotary Club about the proposal.
Coulthard, 64, a Vietnam veteran who has made a name for himself by securing government dollars for veteran housing for the past two decades, is optimistic about turning the Oak Ridge property into "Valley Forge Village," a 400-unit retreat for veterans and their families where they may stay as long as they wish in a self-sustaining common interest community that offers training and reintegration strategies.
"We could pull it off very quickly," Coulthard said in a phone interview from his home in River Falls, Wis. "It's more than shovel ready."
Coulthard said the facility would be intended as a non-medical facility where veterans can go voluntarily.
"We're trying to stay away from it being institutional," he said. "It wouldn't be a place you are discharged to."
Coulthard said Sauk Centre is an ideal location because of the vicinity of VA centers in Alexandria and St. Cloud as well as schools such as Alexandria Technical College, which veterans could attend to learn new trades or professions. He said the remodel and construction phase could produce 60 jobs, but he envisions as many as 200 if the project came to fruition.
Funding
While the personnel has changed, one obstacle has remained. Where will the money come from?
"I don't know where it is going to come from," Coulthard said. "But for me there is nothing as strong as an idea whose time has come."
Coulthard has twice visited Washington with colleagues associated with the project. He said he has met with several politicians and is trying to get federal agencies such as Health and Human Services, HUD, the Veterans Administration and the Department of Agriculture (organic farming would be a staple of the village) to work together.
"I'm trying to get them to take a look at this on a national level," he said. "To me, that is where it makes most sense."
Coulthard said it's difficult to put a price tag on the project because the campus is so large.
"It's such a wild guess," he said. "I personally think $35 to $40 million would give us a top-of-the-line place."
Who is Coulthard?
Jimmie Coulthard spent six years in the Army in the 1960s and spent 20 months in Vietnam.
"When I came home in 1968, this country was crazier than a tick," he said.
He worked on riverboats for awhile before becoming a chemical dependency counselor.
"In 1984 my life fell apart so I went to the VA to get help and changed careers," he said.
He eventually landed a job at the Hazelden Foundation, a nationally recognized treatment center in the Twin Cities. In 1992 he started a homeless veterans program that eventually led to several housing projects for veterans throughout the state, including Minneapolis and St. Cloud.
He hopes the Oak Ridge project will be his latest success story in helping veterans. He, along with Oak Ridge property owner Jim Jauss, and Nadia McCaffrey, the mother of Patrick McCaffrey, who was killed in the Iraq War, are slated for a visit to Washington April 19-21. He hopes to know more about the future of the project in the next couple months.
"People would love to see it saved, used, run responsibly and create some work," he said. "With veterans you always feel served. They're still out there serving. This is a worthwhile project to try and pull off. The stars are aligned for that place. It's just ready."
