LAFAYETTE, La (KLFY) – Acadiana veterans are looking forward to having a new veteran’s clinic here in Lafayette and soon they will be able to take advantage of the new facility.

The first layer of asphalt has been laid and there’s much more work to be done, but the Veteran’s Action Coalition couldn’t be more excited to see their dream come to fruition.

“We as a coalition have been trying to get this for at least 7-8 years now,” said coalition board member, Deron Santiny.

Progress is being made as construction continues on the new clinic.

“Construction is moving along incredibly fast,” said coalition co-chair, Dr. Skip Palmintier.

Dr. Palmintier says there’s been a major need for many years now for the nearly 35,000 square foot clinic.

“Basically for space more than anything,” said Dr. Palmintier. “We’re definitely looking forward to a beautiful place we can go to and have good medical care in a larger facility with adequate parking space.”

“Our older veterans, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, these guys deserve it,” said Santiny. “They’ve been being seen at what we have now which is very understaffed.”

Santiny says they’re looking forward to more services being offered at the new clinic.

“Specialty items that we need here to be seen instead of veterans having to drive to Alexandria,” said Santiny.

Santiny and Dr. Palmintier say the coalition will continue to fight for better services, but in the meantime they’re looking forward to construction being completed very soon.

“If everything goes okay, we’ll be completed in August sometime,” said Dr. Palmintier.

Dr. Palmintier says they hope to start taking patients at the clinic sometime in December.

The Veteran’s Action Coalition will have a public meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Lafayette Public Library-South regional branch to give an update on the clinic’s progress.