HARLINGEN -- A new 120,000-square-foot veterans' clinic will open here by 2010, expanding the services of the existing clinic, federal officials said Monday.

The expanded facility will eliminate 95 percent of veterans' visits to San Antonio for medical care, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officials said.

Diana Struski, a VA spokeswoman, said that the agency will sign a 20-year lease with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio after the facility is completed.

The firm of Boyer Harlingen L.C. will build the ambulatory-surgery center on the Regional Academic Health Center campus for almost $40 million, Struski said.

She didn't immediately know when construction would begin, but the three-story facility is slated for completion in October 2010, she said.

The VA will lease it from the UT Health Science Center for about $2.8 million per year, Struski said.

Veterans who need outpatient surgery will be able to go to the new facility instead of traveling to San Antonio, officials said.

Other services, such as primary care, specialty care, X-rays, health screenings, mental health care and pharmacy services, will remain at the existing South Texas VA Health Care Center, also adjacent to the RAHC.

RAHC officials were unavailable for comment Monday afternoon.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said in a recorded statement Monday that she was pleased the VA has agreed to the expansion.

"This is going to make it the largest ambulatory-care facility in the VA system for rural veterans," Hutchison said. "We are so excited that this promise that was made to us is being kept, and it is on time and ready to go."

Hutchison has repeatedly visited VA facilities in the Valley and called for an expansion of health care services for the region's veterans.

Local veterans said they were excited about the news, but still believe the Valley needs a full-fledged hospital.

"It's great news to hear, and will certainly cut down on a lot of trips to San Antonio, but it's not enough," said Jose Maria Vasquez, commander of America's Last Patrol of the Rio Grande Valley. The organization's members voted to fly the group's American flag upside down from December to January to call attention to the need for a veterans' hospital. Vasquez said the gesture was a "distress signal."

"We need a stand-alone, 24-hour hospital," he said.

The current, 34,000-square-foot clinic in Harlingen, which opened in 2007, already has reduced veterans' visits to San Antonio, VA officials have said. Officials have announced plans to contract with local hospitals for veterans to receive emergency and inpatient care, and to expand an outpatient clinic in McAllen.

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Melissa McEver covers health and environment issues for Valley Freedom Newspapers. She is based in Harlingen and you can reach her at (956) 430-6252.