![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-58-4.png?resize=939%2C320&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe 121,000-square-foot building expands on the resources and services available for veterans in Polk County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
George Bristol and many other veterans are thrilled the clinic has arrived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey did a fine job, and I watched this thing go up from day one,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I know what it took to make it and I like it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-58a-1.png?resize=915%2C352&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nBristol served in the U.S. Navy and lives less than a mile from the clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Construction began in April 2022, and Bristol said seeing the building rise from nothing has been amazing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
From mental health care, audiology, and an eye clinic are just a few of the services the clinic provides.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-58b-2.png?resize=968%2C389&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nBristol said he no longer needs to drive far for most of the services he needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI used to have to go to Tampa for everything I needed to get done,\u201d he said. \u201cNow I can come here and see my primary doctor.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Bristol checked out the clinic with other attending veterans, he thought of the nearly 50,000 veterans in Polk County and how this facility would help. <\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-58c.png?resize=916%2C342&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\u201cIt benefits me and a lot of other people because there\u2019s so many veterans right around this area,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The VA said they\u2019re hoping in the next two or three months, there will be approval to begin working on a similar clinic in Citrus County. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Friday morning for the Lakeland VA Clinic.\u00a0 The 121,000-square-foot building expands on the resources and services available for veterans in Polk County. George Bristol and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":48210,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Screenshot-58b-2.png","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[9244],"class_list":["post-48207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-lakeland-va-clinic-aims-to-help-polk-county-veterans"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48212,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48207\/revisions\/48212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}