More than two years ago the Veterans Administration approved a number of new outpatient clinics for military veterans in Tennessee. Sevier County was named as the site for one of them. A few of the clinics have opened, but not the one promised for Sevier.

More than two and a half years later there is nothing to show for that promise, and locals concerned about it are left to hold meetings to show community support and fight for the establishment of the doctors’ office. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Phil Roe told a gathered audience Thursday at the courthouse that the VA had promised to find a site and get the clinic opened no later than Jan. 1, 2012. The skepicism in the room about the latest VA pledge was noticeable.

This failure to open the clinic by now is wrong on so many fronts. Yes, there are budget concerns at all levels of government. Yes, there are a lot of challenges facing the federal budget. However, to shortchange our military veterans over a relatively small amount of money as the cost of this clinic is unfair and indefensible.

Sevier County is home to thousands of military veterans. There are clinics throughout the state, including some in East Tennessee, but all are 30 miles or more away from Sevierville. We don’t need a VA clinic in every town, but having one in a county as populous and supportive of the military as Sevier makes sense. The VA agrees, since it planned an outpatient clinic in our community.

We have two influential U.S. senators representing us, as well as a congressman in Roe who is a retired physician and became something of a health care expert during the year-long debate and wrangling over health care reform last year. Roe is a strong supporter of the clinic, and said earlier this year we should see movement on the facility this year. To date there has been none.

On Thursday night a number of Sevier County veterans and concerned citizens convened at the courthouse to talk about the project and why we don’t have the clinic yet. Using a portion of the former hospital makes sense to them and to us, although the VA appears to have concerns. Let’s hear them so we can adress them. County officials haven’t yet decided what to do with the vacated facilities space across from our new hospital campus, but devoting a section to the military veterans outpatient clinic is a terrific idea.

Now all we need is the VA to step in and find the money and the determination to get us the clinic we have been promised for more than two years. This will take a concerted and unified effort among local leaders, veterans and our congressional delegation.

We owe it to our veterans to make life and health care as easy to attain as possible. They served us and fought for us, and now we are letting them down by not giving them a clinic promised to them years ago.

Having an outpatient clinic devoted to them right here in their own surroundings saves traveling great distances to be seen by a doctor. It won’t be easy, but we need to speed up the process and make this clinic a reality. Make some noise, leaders. Let them hear us all the way to Washington.