Lucy Harrell has made a $650,000 donation that will complete the first floor of the Soboleff-McRae Veterans Village within a year.
“Since we agreed to do it, let’s do it right. We’ve been able to do it right so far. We’re just kind of continuing down the path,” Harrell said this week in an interview at her residence at the Haines Assisted Living building.
Scott Hansen, assistant community manager for Haines Assisted Living, which oversees the veterans’ facility, said the money will go toward walls, flooring, plumbing and fixtures that will transform the unfinished space into offices.
The major tenant will be a five-chair dental clinic operated by SEARHC that will occupy more than half of the building’s downstairs. Other expected or possible tenants include Southeast Alaska Independent Living, Cornerstone Home Health Care and Hospice of Haines.
Work is expected to begin in the current construction season and HAL board member Dick Flegel said he expects it will be done by next summer. “We’re designing each tenant’s space based on what they need.”
Exterior improvements, including landscaping and a park area, also should be completed in a year, using money the HAL board expects to secure in the next few months.
HAL has made various efforts to raise funds for the project. Flegel said the group was “up against the wall” to complete the project that was envisioned as a “wellness center.”
The money comes without strings, Flegel said, and is in addition to previous donations Harrell has made to the HAL building and the Soboleff-McRae building. “Lucy has over the years put a lot of money to HAL and also to the veterans’ building. This is on top of those donations. Lucy is very generous in making sure these projects happen and are successful.”
Flegel said that years ago when he was working as the local bank manager and Harrell came to him with an idea for an assisted living facility, he was skeptical.
“I didn’t see how that was going to happen, but it happened. Lucy got the ball rolling and then other funding came in from the Rasmuson Foundation, and from (state Rep.) Bill Thomas and others. The same thing happened on this project,” Flegel said.
Flegel called Harrell “one of the most generous people in this community I’ve ever seen. There have been other people who’ve been very generous, but not to this degree.”
A contractor has not yet been chosen for the project. Hansen said construction of the dental clinic portion of the building will take some additional time.
“It’s fairly technical construction, so (completion) is probably not sooner than later. There’s some uniqueness that goes with building this kind of facility,” Hansen said.
Work will include hiring a contracted project manager, Hansen said. The upstairs of the building, which features 11 apartments with a veterans’ preference, is fully occupied, he said.
Harrell said the three facilities – including St. Lucy’s residence for low-income, independent seniors attached to the HAL building – serve the community by gathering senior citizens and social and health services in a consolidated campus.
“It benefits the whole community to have us all together, the independents, veterans and old folks. It makes us a complete service entity that serves the community as a whole,” Harrell said.
Tenants moved into the veterans’ building last August, when $6.4 million had been spent on it. A $6 million grant from the Alaska Legislature paid for most of the building. It’s built to the same energy-saving standards as the HAL building, Flegel said