Just months into construction, the Sunshine Lodge expansion is going full speed ahead, and looks like it may be ahead of schedule. The building site has been a flurry of activity as the new facility takes shape. “We’re aiming for the end of September,” said Janet Senior, CAO of the Drumheller and District Seniors Foundation. “Originally we were looking at November, so they have done very well.”
Just months into construction, the Sunshine Lodge expansion is going full speed ahead, and looks like it may be ahead of schedule. The building site has been a flurry of activity as the new facility takes shape. “We’re aiming for the end of September,” said Janet Senior, CAO of the Drumheller and District Seniors Foundation. “Originally we were looking at November, so they have done very well.” The ground for the expansion was broken in September of 2007 to make way for 36 Designated Supportive Living Units to be built adjacent to the current Sunshine Lodge. These units will be aimed at seniors who are too frail for a lodge environment, but whose needs are too low to require living in an Extended Care Unit. The Drumheller And District Seniors Foundation will provide the building, while the David Thompson Health Region will contribute funding for personal care services. In September of last year the transfer of land from the Town of Drumheller to the Foundation was completed. The project, estimated at more than $8 million has received more than $5 million of funding through the Alberta Government. It received $2.6 million from the Rural Affordable Supportive Living Projects in December of 2005. Last fall the government pledged another $2.7 million of top-up funding. Ron Boruk Architects designed the expansion, (the same company that designed Maple Ridge Manor 2) and the construction is being carried out by Reed Atwood Builders of Calgary. “It has been a wonderful experience dealing with this general contractor,” said Senior, adding they are approaching the midway point in the construction. Also gaining steam is the Friends of Sunshine Lodge, a group set up to help furnish the facility after it is built, to make it truly a home for the residents. Last month they held a gala dinner and auction and realized more than $40,000 for the project. They have set a goal of raising about $350,000 for the cause.