LISBON - The hallways of the North Dakota Veterans Home are too narrow for more than one motorized medical scooter to pass at one time, and some residents are picked up at a loading dock for medical appointments.

"That's an issue of human dignity," said Brad Maasjo, of Fargo, one of the home's board members. "That's not right."

Maasjo said he feels more patriotic this Memorial Day, with groundbreaking ceremonies for a new $26.5 million facility a couple of weeks away.

"The spirit of teamwork was everywhere in getting this project done," he said. "It really wasn't a political issue, it was a patriotic one."

The Legislature approved the new Veterans Home in the last session, after the federal Veterans Administration agreed to chip in about $12 million. It will replace a facility that was built in 1893 and revived several times.

"If you walked into that building today, you would say the building doesn't meet today's standards," Maasjo said. "It's an old building. It's kind of tired."

The current campus includes the main four-story building, which was completed in 1950; a four-story addition built in 1980; and a two-story addition built in 1990. Maasjo and Mark Johnson, the Veterans Home administrator, said it looks more like an institution than a home.

"It seems more like a barracks or a dormitory," Maasjo said.

The new facility will be entirely one story, with three separate wings surrounding a central support center. It will have two 49-bed basic care units and one 52-bed skilled care unit.

"We're making this very independent, very private," Johnson said. "This is their own room, this is their own shower. It offers independence and it offers just a great quality of life for them."

The project caps a turnaround in fortunes for the Veterans Home, which five years ago drew questions from legislators about failure to follow rules. That included violations of state bidding laws, a lack of performance reviews of division managers and improper money handling.

That was followed by the creation of a seven-member board to supervise the home.

The new facility was proposed in the fall of 2006, after problems with ventilation and air conditioning. The idea came at a time when the state's revenues were increasing and officials were focused on medical care for veterans returning from the Persian Gulf.

"It was almost as if the planets were aligned," Maasjo said.

Ross Cole, the mayor of Lisbon, said residents were worried at one time about losing the Veterans Home, which currently employs about 110 people.

"This is just a wonderful thing for Lisbon," Cole said. "It's also a wonderful for our veterans, who deserve the best kind of care they can get."

The Veterans Home is on 92 acres of rolling land in south Lisbon, just east of the Sheyenne River, surrounded by meadows and old trees.

"It is simply the heart of the Sheyenne River Valley," Johnson said. "It just keeps getting prettier all the time."

The new home will be built on higher ground that will meet requirements of the 500-year flood plain and offer views of the countryside. The 150-bed facility is scheduled for completion in June 2010.

"The quality of care has never been in question," Maasjo said. "Now we're going to have one of the most modern veterans care facilities in the entire nation."