It’s been almost a year since the Pioneer House has opened its doors to residents after being built as an extension to the Pioneer Lodge.
The $16 million expansion project has added 44 new spaces for seniors in the area. Administrator at Pioneer Lodge Joyce Bell says the first year has been challenging with various learning curves due to third party management.
“There has been times that we didn’t meet the expectation our board expected, but going forward I am very confident we’re going to.”
Pioneer House is managed by Connecting Care, a private organization that Bell says has a different philosophy than Pioneer Lodge. Despite the challenges, the seniors living space has given Lloydminster residents the chance to stay close to their loved ones.
“We have had couples that were able to stay under the same roof because we’ve been able to provide that. We have certainly had a number of residents that were able to stay in the Lloydminster area and be close to family and friends that would of ended up being in Wainwright, Red Deer, Edmonton otherwise,” says Bell.
Their are currently over 80 people on the waiting list for the Pioneer Lodge and between eight to ten people waiting for the Pioneer House. Bell says they are still placing people in rooms from February 2017.