The Veterans Affairs Maine Healthcare System broke ground for a new facility in Augusta on Wednesday morning. The facility will provide accommodations to families of veterans and military personnel who are receiving treatment at the VA Maine Healthcare System, Togus.
The new Fisher House will offer lodging to as many as 16 families, at no cost to them.
“The Fisher Foundation is just wonderful,” says VA Maine Healthcare System Director Ryan Lilly. “They actually bear the cost of construction, so there's no cost to the VA. The Fisher Foundation pays to build the homes, and then they essentially turn them over to the VA and we maintain them and operate them after they've already been built.”
Lilly says Maine's first Fisher House will hopefully open in about 14 months, and it will join 75 other facilities in this country and overseas.
