PEMBROKE — Area veterans are glad to be getting a community outpatient clinic in Robeson County, although some say believe a greater number of veterans could be served if the clinic were placed in Lumberton rather than Pembroke.

Veterans Affairs announced Wednesday that the clinic, expected to be open in the spring, will be located in an existing building at COMtech, just outside of Pembroke. The 5,500-square-foot building is being leased from Venture Properties Group Limited of Pembroke.

According to the Veterans Affairs, the clinic will provide primary care and general mental health services to 2,100 existing and 300 new patients from Robeson and Bladen counties, as well as from Dillon County, S.C. It will be staffed and managed by the Fayetteville Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

“We are very pleased that we were selected for the clinic site,” said Tony Normand, COMtech’s chief executive officer. This is a great initiative. I think COMtech is a great location.”

Greg Cummings, a Pembroke resident, Vietnam veteran member of the Pembroke council and the county’s economic development director, agrees.

“This is great news for veterans from Robeson County and surrounding counties,” Cummings said. “It is a needed project that is going to help meet the medical needs of our veterans. The clinic will especially be important for those now returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Cummings didn’t want to comment on the selection site, saying it was made at the “federal” level.

The announcement ends months of waiting for the department to review possible sites in the Lumberton and Pembroke areas to determine which would best serve area veterans. But the decision was not applauded by some veterans who feel that the facility should be placed in Lumberton and near Southeastern Regional Medical Center.

“This is strictly politics,” said Sammy Cox, commander of American Legion Post 42 in Lumberton. “It just doesn’t make sense. I don’t know anyone in the American Legion that doesn’t want that clinic in Lumberton. A lot of veterans won’t use a clinic in Pembroke. They will go to Fayetteville.”

Lumberton officials were among those who had lobbied for the clinic to be located in their city. City Manager Wayne Horne said that the city sent a letter clinic to Veterans Affairs expressing that sentiment, as did individual council members.

“We are certainly disappointed,” Horne, a veteran, said. “We feel that with our close proximity to the hospital, and easy road access, that we fit like a glove to what the VA first advertised they were looking for in a clinic site.”

“It seems like someone dropped the ball,” said Councilman Wyatt Johnson, also a veteran. “We were told 10 years ago that we would get a clinic here in Lumberton. It was changed somewhere along the way because someone wanted something different. I think we got snookered.”

Johnson said that although the decision has been made, he and about 25 other veterans who have lobbied for the clinic to be in Lumberton would continue to “voice opposition.”

Originally, Veterans Affairs was looking for sites just in Lumberton, but the project was readvertised. eliminating much of Lumberton — including the area near the hospital — from consideration. Areas south of Lumberton and Pembroke were added.

The advertisement originally posted by the Department of Veteran Affairs cited the need for property with a building large enough to house a 5,000-square-foot clinic. The space could be a free-standing building, or within an existing building, and must be close to major thoroughfares, easily accessible from all areas of the county, and located in an area of low traffic and crime.

Bruce Sprecher, director of public affairs for the Veterans Integrated Service Network in Durham, on Wednesday defended the Veterans Affairs’ decision to locate the clinic in Pembroke.

“The VA is trying to get the best value for the government and place the clinic in the best location for veterans,” he said. “This process is as fair, above board and as clear as it possibly can be. It was done by the letter of the law in order to get the best value for the government.”

Sprecher said that a panel of eight experts reviewed site applications and unanimously scored the COMtech site the highest. He said, however, he did not know specifically what advantages the Pembroke site had over Lumberton. Sprecher said he would provide information about staffing at the clinic, but it had not arrived by the deadline for this story.

Aaron Thomas, the member manager of Venture Properties, said that he believes the cleanliness of the COMtech site, as well as COMtech’s 24-hour security, may have played a major role in the decision.

“I think COMtech fits like a glove to what they were looking for,” Thomas said.

Arthur Shull, quarter master for VFW Post 2843 in Pembroke, said that his major concern in selection of a site was traffic and parking. He said Wednesday that he has seen the clinic site at COMtech and it looks “nice and provides plenty of parking.”

“I’m glad they finally made a decision,” said Shull, a member of U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre’s Veterans Advisory Committee and the state’s VFW commander 10 years ago when the idea of an outpatient clinic in Robeson County was first floated. “A lot of the guys are going to be disappointed, and a lot are going to be pleased. But I’m glad to see this clinic coming because it is going to serve a lot of vets.”

Cox believes the clinic will be too far from a hospital.

“I don’t want to be 10 to 20 minutes away from a hospital if I get in trouble,” said Cox, who is plagued with heart problems. “When they threw out consideration of sites in North Lumberton and the hospital area, I think they did injustice to the folks in Lumberton ... But a clinic in the county is better than no clinic at all. We will have to learn to live with it.”