Illinois Valley Times

State Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) is criticizing the LaSalle Veterans’ Home over its alleged lack of basic necessities. 

“More problems at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home: Due to questionable policies, residents are having to potentially go days without access to basic necessities even though many of these items have actually been donated to the home by the@LasalleVAC. IDVA must resolve this issue,” Rezin said in a tweet. 

Rezin has been a harsh critic of the operations of the home. 

She linked to a letter written by Superintendent of LaSalle County Veterans Assistance Commission Steven Kreitzer. 

In the letter, Kreitzer asked for donations noting it can take days to weeks for nurses at the home to receive supplies. 

“If we have donated supplies on hand then there should be no need for the veterans to have to wait or possibly go without during their time of need,” the letter reads. 

Earlier this year three residents died at the home due to an uncontrolled COVID-19 outbreak. 

Rezin previously applauded the home’s move to fire its former leadership but asked the organization to better investigate the conditions that allowed for the outbreak. 

“More importantly, we still haven’t gotten an answer about why it took 12 days for a site visit to take place that uncovered significant deficiencies leading to this devastating outbreak. That’s 12 days when ineffective hand sanitizer and PPE were in use, and ineffective infection control protocols weren’t corrected. We need answers to these critical questions.”