While all discussions regarding what went wrong with the initial plan to relocate a new Fairvern Nursing Home to lands near the Huntsville hospital have been held in closed session, Huntsville CAO Denise Corry gave council an update on the matter at its September 27 meeting.
She said all contributions made by the home as well as the Town of Huntsville for related studies and a road construction leading to the former site offered by local businessperson Pat Dubé are in the process of being returned. As per Corry’s report, those funds amount to an estimated $750,000.
Corry told council the scope of the project increased when the facility was granted 160 beds by the Province.
“The scope of the project obviously increased to our benefit, 160 beds is a great addition to the community, but it was more or less deemed that the property wasn’t conducive to the construction of a building of that size,” said Corry, adding that there were many discussions with Dubé to see if another location could be found, but that did not materialize.
In the meantime, former Huntsville Mayor Claude Doughty and his business partner have donated a five-acre property on Centre Street as part of the planned Paisley Park development.
The new home will be managed by the District of Muskoka.
“I just wanted to publicly thank both the Cockwell and Doughty families for this very generous donation. We now have five acres for our new state-of-the-art Fairvern right in our urban centre,” said Terziano. “It’s going to be the best Fairvern… because we’re coming in on the backs of COVID and everything’s going to be done right. The home’s going to be kind of modular, it’s going to be pods, residents are going to feel like they’re part of a family, and I think it’s just great that this Fairvern is going to be where people can walk to it and it’s going to be in a residential neighbourhood and our seniors are going to feel like part of our community when they end up there.”
Once again, Terziano thanked former Mayor Doughty and his business partner for their donation of land.
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I want to thank the Doughty/Cockwell families for their generous donation of land where the new Fairvern will be build. It is a good start to a costly venture. So happy that it will contain pods as it is very people friendly and work especially well for the elderly. Have been to elder homes in Denmark and that’s the route they go. The people of Huntsville have something to look forward to, so exciting.
Thank you again and God bless you.
The new home will be managed by the District of Muskoka.
Some might find this unsettling especially if politics become involved.