GALLUP, N.M. — The Navajo Nation has given approval to help fund a veterans facility in New Mexico that will prevent patients from having to travel far for care.

Navajo Nation council members voted 19-0 this week to give $2.4 million toward the construction of a service center for veterans in the community of Thoreau.

The center, which will be about 33 miles east of Gallup, will offer physical therapy as well as medical services.

Thoreau Chapter Veterans Committee Commander Lester Emerson says they will work with the state Department of Veterans Services to hire a doctor to be based there.

Emerson says the hope is that veterans will no longer have to make the two-hour journey to Albuquerque for medical services.

The facility also will have a space for events and meetings.