By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – There’s finally progress in the rebuilding of the Illinois Veterans’ Home in Quincy, where 13 residents died of Legionnaires’ disease in recent years.
Gov. Rauner Tuesday signed two bills that help make it happen: one starts the $53 million project; the other incorporates a recently purchased former nursing home – adjacent to the veterans’ home – into the property.
“There’s no one who believed that the entire facility and the entire plumbing system needed to be replaced when we had the outbreak of legionella,” Rauner said at a ceremony in his office Tuesday. “We brought in every possible expert we could, and the team there in Quincy implemented every recommendation.”
State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora) couldn’t resist a little jab at Rauner. “I’d like to give kudos to a gentleman we don’t see often and (about whom) you also see bad things: Speaker Michael J. Madigan. He was able to help us, along with our counterparts on the other side of the aisle, to get this done,” she said. “Please understand this, as sure as I stand here: veterans’ issues in Illinois are not political issues.”
Asked about the Madigan mention later, Rauner said legislation rarely moves in the House without the Speaker’s blessing.
