AKRON, Iowa – “Very excited, very happy and looking forward to completion of a new facility.”
These words Gail Olson, administrator, Akron Care Center, said pretty much sum up not only the feelings of the present care center staff but community residents as well as they look ahead to a hoped for successful fund drive to make a new care facility a reality.
The estimated $6 million project is moving ahead in stages Olson said and is now in what she termed “the quiet stage” as building project committee members await final approval of the plans and new care center design submitted to the Iowa State Fire Marshal’s Office inspection and appeals division by Cannon Moss Brygger & Associates, Sioux City, project architects.
A professional fund raising firm was hired last fall to spearhead the project fund drive for donations and pledges Olson said adding that farmland at the south edge of Akron has already been donated by John and Mary Lucken, Akron, for the care center site. Additional donations have included a home to be sold with proceeds going to the project and a local farmers’ Grain Train donation.
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Once state approval is granted for the project Olson said financial planning will continue to be followed by bid letting for the project. Project supporters are hopeful she said that ground can be broken for the new center this summer with completion of the structure targeted for summer or early fall 2012.
Olson said a feasibility study made earlier of the present city-owned care center built in 1951 showed numerous problems with “the internal workings” of the structure including the plumbing and electrical system.
Necessary improvements and insuring these changes meet the 2000 Building Code she said would be “very expensive” were they to be made for what is considered a structure “getting old” at the present time. Care center officials she added have also been notified that a required sprinkling system be installed in the present facility by Aug. 13, 2013 or the center will be shut down.
As a result Olson said it’s been determined that renovation costs necessary to bring the existing 45-resident facility would cost “too much money” to bring the care center, originally built for a hospital, up to code. If plans are successful for the new center project, ownership of the present center site will revert back to the city of Akron she added.
“The initial plans for the new care center include those for a one-floor facility as opposed to the present multi-level structure which will reduce staffing costs as well as create a more comfortable environment with an outdoor area for our residents,” Olson said adding that some resident rooms now in use are those converted from the former hospital’s obstetrics and operating rooms.
Two “neighborhood concept” units are included in the planning for the new facility she continued. This concept Olson said where residents “come first” will allow residents more “homelike” living independence. The future property site she added will also allow for future expansion of the new facility with either an assisted living or Alzheimer’s unit under consideration.
Olson said the present Akron Care Center serves not only serves residents of the Akron area but those from “a large area” around Akron extending to near Sioux City on the north, mid-way to Hawarden on the north and into South Dakota and extending east to near to Le Mars. Residents of these areas she said frequently also use the services of the center’s clinic for therapy and skilled care.
“There’s a definite need here for the services we provide,” Olson said. “We see the new center as not only meeting the needs of our residents but as a facility providing jobs for our 55 employees.
“The new center also we feel can open the door for other jobs elsewhere in the community as well,” she said. “In addition there is the added business for local businesses resulting from the purchases made by families of our residents when they come to visit.”
Again emphasizing what a new care center can mean for residents Olson put it this way. “We feel a new facility will provide them with more of a feeling of being at home, the opportunity to be more comfortable and to be familiar with our staff,” she said.
“Residents’ families will be able to see them more often than would be possible were they living away outside the community,” she said. “We see it important, too, that with a new care center available, our residents many of whom spent their lives in our community or whom have retired here after moving from their farms, won’t have to face another change in their lives by moving to a facility out of town.”
