With the arrival of warm weather, construction on a new $10.4 million continuing care facility in Vegreville is about to begin. Following a public tender process, Marshall-Lee Construction Corporation based in Spruce Grove was the successful bidder as general contractor for the project, which includes all construction and related roadwork.

Founded in 1970, Marshall-Lee Construction has built over 175 structures ranging from educational and health care facilities to commercial buildings, shopping malls and light industrial buildings. One of those projects was the $2.5 million Plant Research Facility in Vegreville. Construction startup on the new continuing care facility is scheduled to begin by the end of April and take 12-14 months to complete.

The new continuing care centre will be built on the same site and adjacent to Century Park, the 40-bed supportive housing complex currently under construction just south of downtown Vegreville. The care centre will be owned and operated by East Central Health while Vegreville Seniors Housing is the owner/operator of Century Park. The basic designs for the two new buildings reflect a new social model for continuing care. The building designs focus on providing a flexible and personal "home-like" atmosphere for residents, rather than a traditional institutional design.

The new buildings will address the challenge of ensuring Vegreville has enough nursing home beds for people who need facility care and enough supportive housing spaces for people whose needs are beyond the mandate of the lodge but still do not need nursing home care. It also achieves a net increase of 10 spaces - to 100 from the current 90 - within funding provided by the Alberta government.

After construction on both the new supportive and continuing care facilities is complete and residents have moved in, the aging Vegreville Care Centre building will be demolished.