VALLEY CARES ELDERCARE PROJECT GAINS MOMENTUM

Congratulations to the fledgling Valley Cares Eldercare project, which has made tremendous progress during the past four months:

• Valley Cares became incorporated in Vermont and has applied for IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit status.

• The project has been awarded a $951,900 HUD 202 grant to construct independent senior housing with supportive services, and $201,500 in rental assistance funding to subsidize 12 units for very low-income seniors over a 5-year period.

• A nine-member Valley Cares Board has been formed and has met twice. Members are: John Nopper (Putney), President; Effie Chamberlin (Townshend), VP; Stacey Rheaume (Newfane), Treasurer; Edith Serke (Windham), Secretary. Other board members include Kit Martin (Townshend Selectboard), Charlie Marchant (Townshend), Jean Allbee (Brookline), Neil Pelsue (Newfane) and Grace Cottage CEO Albert LaRochelle. Valley Cares bylaws require that three members of the Grace Cottage Board also serve on the Valley Cares Board (currently Nopper, Chamberlin and Pelsue).

The focus of Valley Cares is to provide special needs housing for elders: 24 units of independent housing with supportive services and 28 units of assisted living on the 9.8 acres recently donated by Warren Kronemeyer to Grace Cottage, just north of the hospital on Route 35. The Kronemeyer home currently houses Valley Health Council and plans are to move Grace Cottage Adult Day Services to the home (with the addition of a large room off the back).

Grace Cottage Hospital, in collaboration with Valley Cares, will sign an agreement with Housing Vermont, a non-profit housing developer located in Burlington. Housing Vermont will oversee project financing, design and permitting, construction management and, once the project is completed, asset management. Williams & Frehsee Architects (Brattleboro) and Marquise & Morano Engineering (Bellows Falls) are preparing preliminary building and site plans for the project.

The goal is to raise all project financing, through allocation of tax credits and other federal and state grant funding, by this summer. If the permitting process is completed by the end of 2005, project construction would begin by spring, 2006, and the first residents could move in by spring, 2007 (YAHOO!).