BARBECUE SET FOR ANTICIPATED VETERANS HOME.

Byline: Bettie Rencoret Senior columnist

Progress on Lancaster's state veterans home is keeping on schedule, according to the chairman of the local citizens steering committee.

By terms of the state agreement that authorized it, the Lancaster veterans home home can be built on land provided by the city of Lancaster at 30th Street West and Avenue I after the opening of a state home now under construction in Chula Vista.

``We're ready to turn dirt as soon as the Chula Vista home is occupied, tentatively by 2001,'' said Thomas Craft, chairman of the Lancaster veterans home steering committee.

At a meeting of the committee Wednesday at City Hall, Craft reported that the Chula Vista administration building is taking shape. The walls are up, the floors are in and foundations for two of the out buildings are already laid, he said.

The Chula Vista home is scheduled for completion in spring 2000. The facility can be occupied about six months after it is completed, he said.

``It's a medical facility where they have to be accredited before they can provide medical care,'' Craft said. ``Once that's done they can take residents into the home. We can't start until they are fully operational.''

Under the current rule, he noted, Lancaster veterans who need more immediate housing in such a facility can apply for residence in the Barstow or Chula Vista homes first and then transfer to the Lancaster home when it is built.

At the meeting, Bob Marr, a representative of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7283, expressed his concern that Gov. Gray Davis has indicated his desire to have veterans homes in Central and Northern California.

Craft acknowledged he was aware of that but said there is no cause for alarm. He was confident it would be hard to change what has already been approved.

``We need to remain positive,'' he said. ``I'm sure our home is secure.''

In the meantime, funds for furnishing the home's amenities are being accumulated in a special trust fund.

``Every dime contributed for the veterans home will be spent for the veterans home alone,'' Craft said.

The group will conduct its first of what is intended to be an annual barbecue beginning at 11 a.m. today at American Legion Post 311 on 40th Street East at Avenue J.

The meal will include beans, salad and rolls, for a donation of $7.50 per person. There also will be door prizes and a silent auction. Tickets can be purchased from any committee member or at the door.

Seven hundred pounds of beef are being cooked in the post hall's deep-pit barbecue.

``That's a lot of beef,'' said barbecue chairman Ken Creese. ``We need the support of all veterans and veterans groups, as well as the general public, to make it a success.''