(KGNS) - Veterans and community partners broke ground Monday, Oct. 5, on the Veterans Center of Excellence, a new project on a site that once held a building that served as a guardhouse at Fort McIntosh and later as a children's museum.

The building had sat vacant and boarded up for years before Monday's groundbreaking.

Laredo College President Dr. Minita Ramrez said the center will serve current and future veteran students and their dependents."This center is going to support and serve current veteran students and their dependents, and future veteran students and their dependents... we want to give them a place and a space where they feel safe and connected to the work that we're doing here at Laredo College," Ramrez said.