It’s been a long time getting here since the project was announced in February, 2016, but groundbreaking on a new $6.5-million nursing home Thursday had an air of celebration.
Now called Rockdale Estates & Rehabilitation, the 84-bed facility is being constructed on US 79 between Rockdale Intermediate School and the highway.
Co-owners Laurie Kunka and Michael Bumpass were present as were city and business leaders.
The new facility, which will initially employ “at least 100,” according to Bump-ass will replace the current 45-employee Renaissance Villa nursing home on Dyer Street.
‘COME HOME’—But Kunka had residents of another Rockdale nursing home in mind during her remarks Thursday when she called on former residents to “come home to Rockdale.”
She referenced the closing of Rockdale Residence & Rehabilitation which closed its longtime operations on South Wilcox (FM 487) in 2004.
Fifty-six residents of that facility moved to nursing homes in other towns.
“We are going to be here (Rockdale) a long, long time,” Bumpass said.
He said Rockdale Estates & Rehabilitation is being constructed with 84 beds but will have the capability to add many more beds when necessary.
DIFFERENT FEEL—
Builder Michael Smith said the 43,000-square-foot facility should be complete in about a year.
“It’s going to be very nice,” he said. “We’re trying to get away from that ‘institutional feel’.”
Smith said the nursing home will have double rooms in addition to some private suites.
Rebecca Vasquez, chair of the Rockdale Chamber of Commerce, welcomed the new business Thursday and expressed appreciation for the business venture.
A formal groundbreaking, complete with the requisite golden shovels, followed the brief ceremony. (See photo, page 7A).
SAGA—The new nursing home was a long time becoming a reality.
At the time of the January, 2016, announcement, Bumpass and Kunka had their eye on a preferred site, what was then an eight-acre tract owned by the Rockdale ISD in the southwest corner of the large site which contains the intermediate school, which opened in 2009.
They submitted a bid.
But in May, 2016, board members rejected that bid, the only one received for the property.
Supt. Dr. Denise Monzingo said the district “was willing to consider bids that reflect current market conditions. However, the bid received did not meet that standard, resulting in the board declining the offer.
Complicating the manueverings was that the City of Rockdale had just paid $250,000 for a similar tract of land fronting US 79 near the site preferred for the nursing home.
That turned out to be a controversial choice, there was much public dissent and a downtown site was selected for the police station.
Trustees met in June to consider again putting the property back on the market.
The board took no action at that meeting, effectively leaving the tract off the market.
REVISED—Kunka told The Reporter at that time she and Bumpass considered an alternative site, still in Rockdale.
But the business partners said they still preferred the school land to the alternative site.
In September, 2016, on a 4-2 vote, trustees pared the tract from eight acres to just over six, re-oriented it slightly and re-listed it again for a short period of time.
The $250,000 bid from Kunka and Bumpass was the only bid received.
In October, 2016, trustees okayed that bid on a 5-2 vote.
LAST HURDLE—One more hurdle remained as the city needed to install a sewer lift station in order to serve the new facility.
That was worked out this spring and excavation work began last month.
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