As the new Irwin Army Community Hospital prepares to open, Senator Jerry Moran was among those who worked to keep the behind-schedule project in the spotlight and moving forward. He tried to keep the pressure on the completion of the project.

Moran told JC Post, “Well we sure worked to do that because things were taking way too long, and it didn’t seem to me that there was significant effort at resolution. I visited the new hospital to be many times, mostly trying to keep the pressure on the Army to know that somebody was paying attention. Certainly the commanding general at Fort Riley took charge and made things happen. But I also was successful in having a conversation with the Army Chief of Staff, General Milley, who took a real interest in this and reached out to the Corps of Engineers and others within the Army to make sure that things began to happen. We can certainly analyze problems in the way that the process went on, but the real news today is that the day has finally arrived in which the hospital is going to be open and that we’re going to be serving Soldiers and their families in the Fort Riley community.”

Moran noted this project is also a reminder of the tremendous commitment, and makes it much more difficult for anyone thinking that Fort Riley might be downsized in the future. “The investment that’s been made in housing, in education and now in healthcare makes that much more difficult to make the case that anything should happen negative at Fort Riley.”

Moran will attend the ribbon cutting for the new hospital at 2 p.m. Wednesday. The new hospital begins serving patients Monday.