Decades-long dream becomes reality as Bowling Green veterans center opens
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WNKY) – A decades-long effort to bring a state veterans home to south central Kentucky became a reality Tuesday with the grand opening of the Robert E. Spiller Bowling Green Veterans Center.
State and local leaders, veterans and members of the Spiller family gathered for a ribbon-cutting at the new 80,000-square-foot facility, Kentucky’s fifth skilled nursing facility for veterans.
The center has 60 beds, state-of-the-art equipment, physical therapy and recreational activities. Gov. Andy Beshear said the facility will create 152 jobs. The Intermodal Transportation Authority donated 25 acres for the project, while $53 million was dedicated to its design and construction.
The facility is named for the late Col. Robert E. “Bob” Spiller, who spent years advocating for a veterans nursing home in Bowling Green. Beshear said the idea grew out of Spiller driving fellow veterans to Nashville for appointments because it was the closest Veterans Affairs facility at the time.
Dr. Ray Bickerstaff, who worked alongside Spiller and Col. Bill Liddle on the effort, described Tuesday as the culmination of a 15-year journey. The group worked to establish the need for the center, secure community support and advocate for the project in Frankfort.
State Sen. Mike Wilson recalled Spiller repeatedly raising the issue after Wilson was elected in 2010.
“Every time I saw him, ‘Mike, we need that veteran center in Bowling Green,’” Wilson said.
Wilson credited local veterans with doing much of the grassroots work necessary to make the center a reality.
“Without them, this nursing home would not be here today,” Wilson said.
Warren County Judge-Executive Doug Gorman said the facility’s impact should ultimately be measured by the people it serves.
“The most important number is not 80,000 square feet. It’s one,” Gorman said. “One veteran at a time, one person who deserves excellent care, one family that deserves peace of mind and one life story that deserves to be remembered and honored.”
For Spiller’s family, Tuesday represented the completion of a mission their father pursued for years.
“My father always lived by the motto take care of your troops,” Robert Spiller Jr. said. “This facility truly embodies that spirit, providing dedicated, compassionate care until the very end.”
Spiller Jr. said he once wondered what kept his father and other veterans returning to Frankfort despite repeated discouragement.
“Now, I understand this facility isn’t just a building,” he said. “It stands as a tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice. We are obligated to them and honor them by taking care of the living.”
Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Whitney Allen said the center’s next chapter will be shaped by the veterans, families and employees who fill it.
“This center will be built on love, love and more love,” Allen said. “This extraordinary home and the people within it will change everyone who enters it.”
Center administrator Jason Gumm said the facility will soon become something more than the project people have discussed for years.
“We’ve all been thinking and talking about this building or this project for many years, but in a very short time this will no longer be a building,” Gumm said. “It will be transformed. It will become a home, a home for veterans.”
Tuesday’s ceremony began with a moment of silence for Kentucky State Police Trooper Hayden Phillips, who was killed in the line of duty in Warren County the day before.
After years of advocacy, planning and work by veterans and community leaders, the ribbon was cut on the facility Spiller envisioned… a place designed to care for the veterans he spent his life serving.
