The campaign efforts are continuing unabated and the Hearthstone committee, charged with the duty of collecting $8 million for a new regional nursing home in Estevan, is zeroing in on their target.
Don Kindopp, chairman of the New Estevan Regional Nursing Home committee, and Vern Buck who chairs the Hearthstone committee, said they expect the new ERNH to be in the provincial queue for approval by the Health Ministry very soon.
"We're on the list at Sun Country for sure, and they are also involved with getting a new hospital built in Weyburn," said Kindopp. So in their eyes, the Estevan project might weigh in as No. 2 on the priority list. But at the same time, the Estevan fundraising effort might be closer to completion than the Weyburn area efforts for the larger project.
But on Thursday afternoon, the two, along with Hearthstone committee member Dave Hammermeister, accepted a cheque from Dave Dayman of Dayman Trucking Co. Ltd., representing the first installment of a $100,000 pledge toward the project, which put the local fundraising effort well past the $7 million mark.
"Now we need to get on the provincial list for construction. This community has shown their commitment. We know we can get it done now," said Buck.
Whether the new nursing home can be built as a private, public partnership model (P3) or built under the conventional system, is yet to be determined and the local committee has only discussed the potential of the P3 model in general terms, said Kindopp.
"In January, we can starting talking about the possibilities and options," said Kindopp, who added that he felt assured that Estevan businesses and individuals were on board with the project to the point that they were confident they would soon reach the $8 million target, which represents the required total commitment for a $40 million new 72 to 80-bed nursing home that would be built as another wing or module attached to St. Joseph's Hospital, replacing the current ERNH located on Wellock Road.
"We have a letter from Sun Country Health Region indicating that the value of the property that the ERNH is on now could be applied to the cost of the new home, but we're not wanting to include that value in the $8 million target because the $40 million just includes base construction costs, and that means the new home would still have to be furnished. We'd like to use the money from the sale of the old property to cover some of the cost of furnishing the new nursing home," said Kindopp.
Dayman, in making the donation, said the discussion regarding the contribution was an easy one for the family to make.
"Our dad started the company here in 1954, and we've been a part of Estevan ever since. We (brothers) jumped in, in 1982 when the oilpatch opened up again and Estevan and what it offers has been part of our lives forever," Dayman said. "So it's about community for us."
