Silver Kettle Village, Golden Life Management’s new residential care bed facility, will be located on a property on 72nd Avenue and 25th Street in Grand Forks.
The news was revealed after city council approved the sale of the 3.25-acre portion of property to Golden Life Management at a council meeting on May 9 – the sale was for the amount of $300,000 and city staff was authorized to work with the purchaser to finalize the agreement and title transfer by June 30.
“I think this is an excellent opportunity for the city,” said Coun. Christine Thompson at the council meeting.
“It’s going to give 40 long-term care beds plus an additional two for respite care and another 40 for the seniors housing.”
At the same time, Thompson said she was aware of a situation with Rod Gustafson and the investment that he made with the Broadacres Care Facility on Carson Road.
“I believe council has done everything it can possibly do to assist Mr. Gustafson in his endeavours; however, the decision was not the city’s to make, it was Interior Health (IH) and as it has entered into a contract with Golden Life Management, I think this is a good opportunity for the city to partner with them to ensure that our seniors are going to be (well taken care of),” Thompson went on to say.
Coun. Gene Robert was at a recent meeting at the Grand Forks and District Public Library concerning Broadacres and IH and saw that there were a lot of people angry with IH awarding the residential care bed contract to Golden Life Management and not Broadacres.
He said he would do everything in his power to assist Gustafson given that he had incurred over $1 million in debt from building Broadacres but said that he would support the resolution to approve the sale.
“My concern is if we don’t support this, the problem is still there,” Robert said.
“We have people that are being displaced from the community and we do not have the beds to put them in and I think that’s disgusting.”
He said he believed in local people taking care of local people.
IH had made a request for proposals back in December for residential care beds in Grand Forks and while Broadacres was one of four preferred proponents, the contract was eventually awarded to Golden Life Management.
Construction is expected to begin in September and is expected to be completed in the summer of 2012.