Construction hats were donned and shovels were wielded Wednesday to mark the start of an expansion project for a Washington-based organization.
Hospice of Washington County hosted a groundbreaking for a new 5,100 square foot facility that will be built onto the north side of their current facility in Washington. About 1,500 square feet of the existing structure will be retained and remodeled, while the southern portion will be demolished and a bioswale will be landscaped to control stormwater runoff. Hospice of Washington County and their building committee has been planning and fundraising for several years to resolve the constant flooding issues of their current facility, which was originally constructed in 1985. Hospice board member and building committee member Janelle Johnson shares some added positives of the new facility, “We will have a large conference space so offering grief support services, offering family luncheons if there is a need. Sometimes the churches are booked and the funeral home’s booked and you need a place to have a lunch after a funeral. We do a luncheon for our volunteers every year so we’ll have a space to do that. So just a space to provide those services to families in their time of need will be very nice.”
This project is funded entirely by donations and grants for an organization that has served a seven-county area for over 30 years. Johnson says they aren’t finished fundraising, “So our cost is around $1.5 million and that has ticked up since we started fundraising just because of the costs of materials going up due to COVID. So that’s what we’re shooting for and we’re over halfway there. We’re excited about that and we’ve put in a request for a Washington County Riverboat Foundation grant as well.”
State Senator Kevin Kinney and staff of Senators Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst and Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks attended the groundbreaking, as well as Mayor Jaron Rosien, Washington Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors, representatives of local contractors and general contractor McCreedy Ruth Construction, and Hospice staff, volunteers and family. The project is anticipated to be completed by January 2022.