It’s been a difficult couple of years for the Arizona Department of Veterans Services in which financial and facilities woes created problems in serving more than 600,000 veterans, the agency’s director said.

Submitted Photo Joey Strickland was named to head the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services in July 2008 after serving more than 10 years as the deputy secretary and executive director of Louisiana Veterans Affairs.

“But now, all my accounts are in the black and the home passed a difficult inspection,” retired Army Col. Joey Strickland said.

With one out every 10 Arizonans being a veteran, the need to ensure they receive the care they have earned is important, he told the Herald/Review.

It was in July 2008 when he was appointed to the job by former Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano after inspections found management problems within the department. He came from a similar position in Louisiana, where he served for 10 years.

Of Napolitano and current Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, Strickland said they support veterans and work hard to help them without letting politics enter the picture.

The needs of the state’s veterans are similar to what is facing all the nation, he said.

To ensure those who served in the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force or Coast Guard are taken care of requires long-range planning, the director said.

To that end, Strickland and his department are looking at developing five more state-operated veterans’ cemeteries and three more community care centers, similar to assisted-living facilities, with individual bedrooms, kitchenettes and bathrooms, like what’s being constructed on federal Veteran Affairs grounds in Tucson.

It will be easier to construct the cemeteries because the state’s buy-in to the program is having the land and giving about $500,000 for each facility, the director said, adding that the federal Veterans Affairs cemetery program provides the rest of the funds to build a burial ground for a state and then the state maintains and operates the facility.

With $2 million in his accounts, it can be used to provide the state’s obligation in obtaining special U.S. funds for constructing a cemetery, he said.

There is one national veterans’ cemetery in the Phoenix area and one state-operated cemetery in Arizona.

When it comes to the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Sierra Vista, Strickland said, “It will be the standard for all the others.”

It is well-designed and maintained, he added, noting that the grounds are beautiful and provide comfort “for those grieving.”

The long-range plan calls for state-operated cemeteries in northern Pima County or southern Pinal County, the Flagstaff area at Camp Navajo, the Kingman region and in Yuma, Strickland said.

Additionally, the director said he is working with the Navajo Nation’s veterans’ office to help construct a cemetery near Chinle.

As for future care centers, the plan calls for constructing them at Flagstaff, Kingman and Yuma.

Currently, there is a veterans’ home in Phoenix, and it is an older facility with the rooms in a hospital setting and not an assisted-living care facility where residents have more control over their daily lives, he said.

Because the state’s buy-in to obtain federal funding for construction is higher for homes �” approximately a third of the $30 million price tag �” the director said it will take longer for the money to be obligated by the Arizona Legislature because it will have to be included in the state budget.

Although most of the veterans using the home and soon-to-be-opened community care center in Tucson are older, Strickland said the dynamics of the times are indicating that younger veterans, those coming out of today’s battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq, will need support.

Veterans are appreciated by all Arizonans, he said, and Strickland is impressed by other veterans reaching out in support of their brethren.

One of the best veterans’ communities in the state can be found in and around Sierra Vista, he said.

“I always like visiting Sierra Vista,” he said.