DIMMITT, Texas: Castro County Hospital District (CCHD) and Korte Company held the ground-breaking ceremony on Feb. 1st at 2:00 pm for the New Senior Living Project located at the intersection of Butler Boulevard and Front Street.

Castro County Healthcare, along with their Board of Directors and public figures of Castro County represented the start of the Senior Living Project by lifting their golden shovels with dirt for the numerous Castro County community members in attendance. Henry Ramaekers, Chairman of the Board of Directors, shared a few words about the facility and what the facility will mean for Castro County.

“We feel that we are going to have a state of the art facility, and that it fits our mission statement of providing high quality, ethical, and cost-effective medical services for our county,” said Ramaekers. “We feel that we will be fulfilling a need for the elderly of our county, and we are proud of that.”

Refreshments followed the groundbreaking, at First United Bank’s Community Room. There, guests viewed rendering images of the facilities from Korte. This included the living and sitting quarters, dining areas, a floor plan, and the facilities exterior.

In 2016, CCHD recognized the increasing need for a locally accountable Senior Living Facility. This prompted them to embark on a community-wide study to assess the need for the construction of a new Senior Living Facility in Dimmitt that would allow for a seamless continuum of personalized care that our patients are accustomed to.

The Senior Living Project will have a positive economic impact by providing additional employment opportunities, by an estimated 40 full time positions.   It will provide senior residents to remain in their home town near family and friends, while receiving the highest standard care. It will provide the community with community-wide programs and lunch to create regular interaction and involvement for the residents.

The new long-term care and assisted living facility will have numerous enriching activities for the residents. Among these are Physical Therapy, Art Classes, Day Trips, Book club, and many more. It will have six assisted living rooms for independent living and 54 long term care rooms.  In the long-term facility, there will be 14 semi private rooms and 24 private rooms. There will be a designated chapel along with a community room, dining room and separate activity room.  Included will be a rehab area and a wellness center for residents to utilize.

The Senior Living Project will be primarily funded through service and fee revenue. It will be a self-supporting entity and will maintain reserves for capital needs, and future operations and maintenance of all its services and properties. The cost of this project is budgeted at $10.8 million with a completion date of December 2018.