House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, shakes hands with military veteran Ernest Martin at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Patriot’s Village veterans’ nursing home. (Shaun Chornobroff/SC Daily Gazette)
SUMTER — The sixth veterans’ nursing home in this military-friendly state officially opened Friday less than 10 miles from Shaw Air Force Base.
The $71.5 million, 125,000 square-foot facility offers veterans low-cost care complete with a barbershop and salon, community game rooms and large public and private courtyards.
“This is the crown jewel of our dedication to our community and to our veterans in our community,” House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, said at the ceremony. “I look forward to this facility being here for years to come.”
South Carolina is home to more than 68,000 active-duty and reserve military members, 400,000 veterans and eight military bases.
“There is still sort of this rebel spirit in the heart of the South Carolinian. Military folks, that sort of draws us into the profession,” said Sen. Jeff Zell, R-Sumter, who was stationed at Shaw for eight years before retiring with 20 years of service.
“We feel at home here,” said the freshman senator.
Shaw Air Force Base, located outside Sumter city limits, has been training pilots since World War II, opening six years before the Air Force was established as a separate military branch. Last September, Sumter was designated the state’s only World War II Heritage City.
More than 13% of Sumter County’s residents are veterans, according to census data, the highest percentage of South Carolina’s 46 counties.
Yet, Sumter wasn’t initially slated for a veterans nursing home.
When the state sought a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs grant in 2015 for additional nursing homes, the state was looking at opening a second one in Columbia.
Then Smith became chairman of the powerful budget-writing committee in 2019 and started publicly asking why the homes weren’t being located in other cities with military bases. The three existing nursing homes at the time — all at capacity — were located in Columbia, Walterboro and Anderson.
“I asked the question, ‘Why not Sumter?’” Smith, who became House speaker in 2022, told the crowd. “Why not put them in the military communities across the state?”
What had been planned for Columbia became Patriot’s Village near Shaw.
Zell said he was impressed by what he saw Friday.
“I didn’t realize the complexities of it,” he told the SC Daily Gazette. “This isn’t just a little building.”
The other two veterans nursing homes that opened ahead of Patriot’s Village are in Gaffney, home to Senate Finance Chairman Harvey Peeler, and Florence, home of his powerful predecessor, the late Sen. Hugh Leatherman.
Future facilities in Orangeburg and Horry counties are set for completion over the next several years, said Robert Hoskins, the deputy director of facilities management for the state’s Department of Veterans Affairs.
Sumter named SC’s WWII Heritage City, recognizing military history
Gov. Henry McMaster is asking legislators to put an additional $20.6 million next fiscal year toward running the six veterans nursing homes.
The additional annual commitment would help ensure veterans are “well taken care of,” Lt. Gov. Pam Evette said Friday about the governor’s budget recommendations for 2025-26.
“I can hope you see our passion, not just in today, not just in what we’ve done, but our passion moving forward,” she said.
Veterans’ cost to live at Patriot’s Village is $68 a day, the same price as the locations in Florence and Gaffney. The three other facilities are priced at $45 a day, said Heyward Hilliard, the state’s director of veteran homes.
“It’s a great value,” he said.
All honorably discharged veterans who served full-time are eligible for the home, Hilliard said.
The facility can accommodate up to 104 veterans and will have 130 full-time employees. Its amenities include areas for physical, occupational and speech therapies, dining areas, an on-site pharmacy and a pool hall.
Admissions are expected to begin in late February or early March.
However, one resident is already known.
Ernest Martin, an 82-year-old veteran, will be moving from the veteran nursing home in Florence County to Patriot’s Village, so he can return to Sumter.
“Everything looks so modern, so good, so up to date,” Martin said. “It’s outstanding.”