The new Valley View Manor, situated on an eight-acre piece of land has beautiful views of the surrounding farm land, has just about anything the residents will need close at hand.
When designing the space the requests of the residents and staff at the current Parkland Manor were taken into serious consideration.
Mayor Rick Pankiw has been working on this project for the last five years, and says he and the committee behind the build have worked hard to make the residents happy.
“It is their home, so we want the residents to be happy, safe and relaxed,” Pankiw said.
One aspect the residents said was important to them was larger closets in their rooms. This request was taken seriously and the design of the new building includes large walk-in closets in each room.
In the case of the double rooms, two large closets were installed in the rooms.
“They told is it was important to them to have a larger closet, and we listened,” said Pankiw.
Each room is also large than what residents currently have. According to Pankiw, the rooms are even larger than government standards.
“I fought and fought and fought to have larger rooms for our residents.”
Each room looks a bit like a studio apartment, with a small area for a fridge and microwave if the residents so choose.
The rooms are also wired for cable.
The bathrooms connected to each room are spacious and have a large walk-in shower.
“We didn’t put a bath in the individual rooms for safety reasons. A lot of slips can happen in a bath,” Pankiw said.
Residents can still have a bath by going down the hall to the spa room. The spa is equipped with a large tub that was recommended by the nurses.
The tub chosen is the same as what is currently used in Parkland Manor.
Along with a spa room residents also have access to a hair salon and a laundry room.
“We had a lot of residents ask for a laundry room so they can do some of their own laundry,” Pankiw explained.
A commercial laundry area is also located in the basement of the building.
Each of the amenities is duplicated on the top floor, so residents can easily access what they want.
The building also includes many open gathering spaces, one of which will be utilized as a gaming area.
“Senior’s love to play games. I was surprised just how much they love their gaming,” said Pankiw.
Access to outside was also important. Pankiw said the land was chosen for the new manor because of the access to trails and the lovely pond that can be viewed for the large windows in the dining area.
Each exit from the building is no more than 15 feet away from the trail system.
There are also outdoor spaces and patios scattered around the building.
The manor is completed with a large dining area and kitchen, which is outfitted in stainless steel everything.
The large kitchen set-up will also house the Meals-on-Wheels.
“One of the nice things about this kitchen is that it is large enough that we can expand the Meals-on-Wheels program in the future,” said Pankiw.
All furnishings found in Valley View Manor are brand new. Pankiw says nothing will be reused from the old manor.
Safety was key for committee and the building designers. If a fire were to occur in each area of the manor will be self-contained.
Large fireproof doors will stop the fire from spreading further in the building, according to Pankiw.
“It is important that our residents feel safe and we made every effort to add that extra security.”
The Valley View Manor is nearly complete, with the finishing touches expected to be completed by the beginning of April.
