Veterans’ Gym May Get Funds to Reopen

Hundreds of veterans disappointed by the shutdown of a North Hills gymnasium last year could soon be back on the basketball courts.

A key member of Congress has agreed to allocate money to repair the gym at the Sepulveda Ambulatory Care and Nursing Home, according to Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon.

Rep. James Walsh, chairman of a subcommittee that oversees appropriations for the Department of Veterans Affairs, has agreed to require that up to $3.4 million be spent to repair the gym, McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) said.

The gym was shut down in September by Philip Thomas, chief executive officer of the department’s Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. He cited structural damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake, saying it was unsafe.

The Army Corps of Engineers has estimated that rebuilding the gym would cost $3.5 million.

Walsh has agreed to a budget requirement that all money remaining in a federal earthquake repair fund at the end of September be spent to repair the gym, McKeon said. The current balance is $3.4 million, he said.

Walsh could not be reached for comment.

Veteran Steve Palmer of Panorama City, who served in the Navy Corps during World War II, called the promise of funding “exhilarating.”

“We’re looking at that as the first hill we have to take,” he said. “You’ve got to take one hill at a time.”

Veterans used the gym for basketball, handball, volleyball and wheelchair games.

“The wheelchair games were really magnificent,” Palmer said. “It was a marvelous kind of recreational therapy.”

McKeon called Walsh’s commitment “a giant step toward rebuilding a gym that was used by hundreds of veterans.”