The Executive Director Of Huron Hospice Brought County Council Up To Date On Their Capital Expansion Campaign At A Recent Meeting
by Bob Montgomery
Huron Hospice Executive Director Willy Van Klooster recently presented Huron County council with an update on their capital expansion campaign.
The expansion involves going from four beds to six beds but there are four new beds being created and two of the current four will be re-purposed for other things. Van Klooster says since the beginning when they first opened the hospice in 2018, it was always intended to be a six-bed hospice. The ministry had set a very tight timeline for them and that didn't allow them the time to raise the money they needed to do the renovations to make it a six-bed hospice. They moved in when they could and worked with a four-bed hospice and have now raised almost all of the money they need to complete the construction necessary to go to six beds.
Two of the current bedrooms will be repurposed. One will become a children's activity room and the other will be a reflection room. “In addition to the four new bedroom suites that we're creating, there will be what we would normally call a nurses station or a nurses communication area, a staff room, a laundry room, space for storage and things like that and then outside they're going to be expanding the parking area, putting in a new driveway that will loop up to the front door and several other things that will be part of the project.”
The total cost of the project is about $2,340,000 and they're asking the county for $55,000. The construction is almost complete and they deliberately wanted that to be the case before they went to the county with a request for funding. The ministry has provided $1,000,000 for the project and the community has been very generous in supporting it with donations so they're almost at the finish line. They felt now was the time to ask the county to help them get over the line.
Van Klooster says they expect to have the construction completed by the middle of August and they're planning an open house on September 12th.
