A community group trying to keep the embattled Waco Veterans Affairs Hospital open is planning to meet June 13 to discuss strategy during the long-standing lull in the facility’s federal review process.

With no news from the government, the Waco VA Task Force has not met since the fall as members awaited updates on plans for the hospital the VA has considered downsizing for the past three years.

The task force of more than 20 prominent local veterans, business leaders and civic officials is trying to regroup and decide where to focus its energy in the coming months.

“We never want to have a meeting unless there’s a reason, (but) we need to be sure we’re doing everything we need to be doing,” said Linda Ethridge, former Waco mayor and the task force chairwoman.

The meeting is tentatively slated for 8 a.m. June 13 at the Waco Transit Center.

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, said it’s time for the community to again discuss how it can help the hospital.“I have spoken recently with members of the Waco VA Task Force and stressed that now is the time for our community to develop specific ways we can partner with the Waco VA Hospital,” Edwards said.

VA officials in Texas tentatively scheduled a public hearing on the hospital’s fate in January but later postponed the session indefinitely and now say they still are awaiting guidance from VA Secretary Jim Nicholson before setting another meeting.

‘No updates’

“We have no updates,” said Tom Balderach, acting associate director for operations with the VA in Temple. He said the regional office is hoping to hear an update on the process this summer.

There has been little explanation for the delay, said Dr. Roland A. Goertz, executive director of the Family Practice Center and a member of the Local Advisory Panel that oversaw the first two public hearings on the hospital’s future in 2005.

“The last communication we received was, ‘Don’t read anything negative or positive into the delay,’ ” Goertz said. “All we’ve been told is ‘stay tuned’ for the last six months.”

The VA announced that it will keep the Big Spring VA Hospital in West Texas open, but the VA has seemingly stalled its review of 15 other hospitals around the country and suspended its review of the Gulfport VA Hospital in hurricane-battered Mississippi.

Ethridge said the Big Spring decision encourages local leaders to continue working.

“We certainly remain optimistic about the prospects for the hospital,” Ethridge said, “but it certainly got our attention when they did resolve the future of Big Spring and did not resolve ours.”