Seniors housing ‘needed’

Co-op board in O’Leary seeks memberships, government funding

Membership in a new Community Seniors Co-operative Ltd. increased five-fold following an information meeting recently in O’Leary.

The co-operative is seeking to build a seniors community care facility in O’Leary and called the information meeting to update area residents on its plans.

“The main purpose of the meeting was to let the community know that since we met with them last we are continuing to work towards this, that we’ve incorporated and that we’re seeking their support.”

Support came in the form of 40 new memberships, representing most of the people in attendance, and bringing the total number of members so far to 50.

The co-operative reconfirmed that it is looking to build a community care facility for seniors in O’Leary.

Neither O’Leary nor housing is mentioned in the co-op’s official name as John Martin explained the committee does not necessarily want to restrict itself to one community or one type of service. Starting out, though, their focus is on a community care facility.

There have been offers for donated land for a facility, but Martin said a location has not been confirmed. A show of hands, however, demonstrated the vast majority of people in attendance had a preference for a facility close to the centre of town.

Average age of those in attendance for the afternoon meeting was approximately 70.

The co-operative has set its sights on a 40-room facility. The estimated cost of the facility would be about $4 million.

Identifying land for the project is a likely next step, said Martin, but he said the co-op has to continue discussions with federal and provincial politicians seeking funding support. The Town of O’Leary has provided assistance with incorporation and the provincial government funded a business plan for the project.

The business plan prepared by David Gamble of Breakthrough Business, indicated a facility would need at least 35 private rooms to be feasible. The plan also projects that 60 per cent of the community care facility’s clients, at any given time, would be subsidized.

“It certainly gave the board a lift to see such enthusiasm in the room,” Martin acknowledged.

He said the co-op board, which consists of Martin, Ronnie MacWilliams, Eileen BrownMacKenzie and Marylois Bernard as executive members, Fran Lewis, Sally Lockhart, Allison Ellis and Margaret StewartSweet as board members and June Easter as ex-official member, will be conducting a membership drive to attract more members. The co-op hopes to set up an office early in the new year but, until then, anyone interested in becoming a co-op member, can contact any of the board members.

“Ideally, we’d like to be breaking ground probably mid- to late 2018,” Martin said, indicating construction might take close to a year to complete.