Gov. Brian Sandoval, Sen. Dean Heller and a host of other dignitaries turned the first shovels of dirt Monday at the site of a new nursing home for veterans in Northern Nevada.

At a festive ceremony held beneath a large white tent on a dirt lot in Sparks, Sandoval told the audience that he’d waited a long time for the new home, which will be designed more like a homey village than a hospital and accommodate 96 beds. Lawmakers took votes in 2015 and 2017 to spend more than $50 million state funds on the project to get it going more quickly, then plan to accept a reimbursement down the line when federal funds become available.

“Today is a day when we reaffirm our commitment to serving our veterans as well as they have served us,” said Sandoval, who projected the construction will finish at the end of 2018. “I’m really competitive. But it’s got to be the best veterans home in the country.”

Heller also attended the groundbreaking in a break from Washington D.C. He’s caught in the middle of tense negotiations over a bill to overhaul Obamacare and has been publicly undecided about voting on whether to proceed with the measure.

“If you haven’t heard, there’s a lot going on back there,” he said. “There’s no better place for me to be today than right here with you.”

The Northern Nevada complex will be built in Sparks, near a DMV office, the Truckee River and the Lake’s Crossing and Dini-Townsend psychiatric hospitals. Veterans would have their own private rooms and share a den, living room and kitchen with 15 other residents.

All residents could access the “town square” — a gathering space in the complex that would include a barber shop, beauty shop, sports bar, dining commons, commissary, chapel, coffee shop and physical therapy gym.

It’s meant to serve some of Nevada’s estimated 300,000 veterans. The cost of housing a veteran there is about $110 a day, which can be paid by the VA, private sources, and Medicare or Medicaid — a program that faces significant cuts under the health bill Heller must decide on.

The home will allow veterans in the north to stay closer to home rather than moving far away for care.

“Five hundred miles between here and the only state veterans home in the state, in Boulder City, is too far,” Heller said. “DC doesn't understand the needs of large western states. For them, 500 miles is five states.”

A member of the veterans affairs committee, Heller said he’d hold the Department of Veterans Affairs accountable for reimbursing Nevada for the cost of the home. The project is 50th in line to receive federal money, but the state was eager to move forward rather than wait several years and potentially pay more because of construction inflation.

Sandoval spoke about a trip he took over the weekend to Concord, Massachusetts, where one of the first battles of the Revolutionary War took place. He said it reminded him of the courage American veterans have shown from that point to the present and the consequences of that bravery.

“We can gather as we like, speak as we like and worship as we like and it’s all because of these men and women in the military,” he said.