2015 Year-End Review
Residents began moving in their newly renovated apartments in January following the completion of phase one of a $9.5 million renovation project for the Affordable Living Apartments on the Green Hills Retirement Community campus at West Liberty, now in its 40th year.
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Officials involved with the Green Hills Community’s $9.5 million project to renovate the Affordable Living Apartments this year react after a ribbon cutting ceremony hosted in November at the 6557 S.U.S. Route 68, West Liberty campus. (EXAMINER FILE PHOTO) |
The project renovated some of the first residential units built around the time West Liberty Hills Inc. opened in 1975.
Prior to the renovation work, Green Hills Community officials worked for about three years to attain funding through Low-Income Housing Tax Credits issued by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency and purchased by the Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing. Huntington National Bank provided a construction loan, while Lancaster Pollard handled permanent financing.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program, which financed the apartments’ construction in the 1970s with a Section 515 loan, restructured the loan on the property, as well as a rental assistance contract that subsidizes rents on 49 of the 76 units. Episcopal Retirement Homes and the Model Group Inc. provided design and management expertise for the project.
The new design includes an expanded kitchen area with new appliances, easy-to-open cabinets, and vinyl plank flooring. Stackable washers and dryers have been installed by the kitchen area as well. Bathrooms also are larger, with new tile flooring, walk-in showers and roll-under sinks. Bedrooms in the apartments feature new carpeting and ceiling fans.
Each of the units were fitted with new windows and energy efficient lighting throughout, along with central air and an electric heat pump, with an extended porch area outside.
Along with the physical improvements, an emergency call system also is in place at the apartments that can alert campus medical staff as needed. Emergency pulls are located in several of the rooms, and the residents also receive an emergency pendant they can wear.
Green Hills CEO Mike Ray offered examples of how Green Hills Community has remained on the forefront of long-term skilled nursing care.
“We were the first nursing facility in Ohio to offer child care, and we’re the second facility in Ohio to dedicate an on-site dementia unit,” he said.
Green Hills Director of Advancement Nita Wilkinson said that, according to some of the earliest meeting notes, a paid consultant estimated the vision of developing a senior citizen community in West Liberty was cost prohibitive and advised against such a venture.
It was a bake sale at the annual Labor Day Festival that generated about $2,300 that comprised the initial funding to help build Green Hills, according to officials.
During the project, sidewalks around the property have been widened to accommodate pedestrian traffic.
The Affordable Living Apartment’s recreation center also has received a facelift, with updated kitchen cabinetry and kitchen island, and space for social activities and parties with a pool table, TV and comfortable seating.
The Remnants of Peonies Prayer Trail at the facility opened in August. Named for the flowering plants that dotted the community’s original site before construction, the $149,000 project funded through donations and grants included an eight-foot wide, mile-long trail for residents, 10 rest stations with benches that have prayer and scripture verses and an outdoor exercise equipment area.
Other Green Hills facts:
• In 1992 — 15 years after the care center opened — eight of the original employees and two of the 10 original residents still worked/resided at the facility.
• The Internal Revenue Service “lost” Green Hills’ original 501(c)3 documents, which had to be reapplied for in 1976.
• The first resident of the Green Hills Center was Harry H. Kilgore.
• The original cost of child care was $1.10 per hour, which included all materials, lunch and morning and afternoon snacks.
• The $1.073 million loan for the care center from the then-Farmers Home Administration was the first of its kind for a nursing home.