The Hearthstone committee is inching closer to their goal of $8 million, which will signal the serious effort to get the wheels in motion to build a new Estevan Regional Nursing Home to replace the aging facility on Wellock Road that caters to senior long-term care clients.
Don Kindopp and Vern Buck, representing the building committee and Hearthstone's fundraising team, were on hand at Estevan Meter Services on Feb. 25 to collect a couple of cheques that amounted to $30,000 in total to aid the money-raising effort.
"We're still getting information on the P3 model as a potential route to go. There are three or four options we can pursue," said Kindopp speaking with the media following the presentation that involved two of Estevan Meter's principal owners, Doug Martens and Dallas Fleck. Other principal shareholders include Reg Stephens and Jarrad Skuce.
"We will be approaching the Ministry of Health, and we met again with the regional health board," said Kindopp who spoke with the Mercury after the committee's presentation to the board of directors of the Sun Country Health Region on Feb. 26.
"We were there to let them know where we're at and the different models we might use for building a new nursing home," Kindopp added.
Sun Country's CEO Marga Cugnet confirmed the fact that several options remain open, including the private/public model (P3) or the traditional design, bid and build model.
Kindopp said there are options that come into the picture as to who would own and operate a new nursing home or whether it could be built by a third party, but operated by Sun Country or a local agency.
"We're investigating all avenues," Kindopp said.
"It's a big project and we've always felt it was important to give back to the community, and this lets us do it for a regional project," said Martens, who noted that it was a straight corporate donation of $25,000 plus another $5,000 from the company's principal shareholders.
Estevan Meter currently has about 40 employees with 35 working out of their main Estevan facility and another five from their new Virden, Man. field office.
Once the local committee reaches the $8 million target the fundraising group intends to submit a formal application to build a new 72-bed (or more) nursing home in Estevan that will be attached as an additional wing to St. Joseph's Hospital. The $8 million represents 20 per cent of the anticipated $40 million that it would cost to build a new facility that would meet all provincial regulations.
