The Niles Star

The new courtyard has been relandscaped by Upstream Waters.

Timbers celebrates grand opening in Cass County

By JOHN EBY
Niles Daily Star

DOWAGIAC — The Timbers of Cass County celebrates its grand opening Friday.
Atrium Centers has rebuilt Dowagiac Nursing Home, which closed abruptly in the summer of 2007.

Dowagiac can see for itself Friday when tours, refreshments and entertainment will be offered from 2 to 7 p.m.

A ribbon will be cut at 4.

Three local women, Eleanor Moore, Lucille Niccum and Carol Nace have spearheaded a group of ladies who crochet, knit and quilt.

This group has spent the last six months constructing lap robes for future residents of The Timbers of Cass County — kind of a welcoming gift from Dowagiac residents to facility residents.

Melissa Knapp is admissions director.

Designed around the individual and part art gallery, part museum of local history with all the Grand Old City photos hung about, the lodge design uses stone finishes and timbers throughout the exterior.

The skilled health care and rehabilitation facility includes elegantly appointed and spacious common areas, a main restaurant style dining area along with private dining for special occasions, activity and recreation rooms, a beauty and barber shop, day room lounges, two state-of-the art therapy gyms that will include a full kitchen and rehab equipment, a canopied entrance drive and the interior courtyard redone by local landscaper Upstream Waters.
If you remember the old nursing home entrance, it was to the opposite side from Colby off Uneta Street and required climbing stairs.

The stairs are gone because the hill is gone, replaced by a flat drive.

During a tour Thursday afternoon we marveled at rooms which look like they ought to be in a vacation hotel, synthetic carpet as sanitary as tile floor in an eye-popping array of colors which give it a Native American feel — although the large table in the lobby sits atop a pattern reminiscent of the NBC peacock when color television first came into vogue.

With all the artwork, historic photos and Round Oak stoves from Dave Hoger and Mark Luthringer, there’s a lot to look at.

We met the nursing director from Berrien Springs and the maintenance director from St. Joseph.

The activities room displays Heddon lures donated by Mayor Don and Joan Lyons, and the decorator used a border featuring accent lures.

A core staff of 25 preparing for the first residents attended training sessions at Southwestern Michigan College.

Atrium Centers, LLC, of Columbus, Ohio (www.atriumlivingcenters.com), operates 43 nursing centers in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Kentucky.

The Timbers is part of a network of 18 centers with more than 1,250 beds throughout Michigan.
The majority of Atrium’s centers are in smaller communities which complement its approach to providing quality skilled nursing and rehabilitation services in a warm, personalized setting.
A long list of services include beauty and barber services, religious programs, family-invited events and a resident council.

Amenities include large private suites and companion rooms with private walk-in showers and private bathroom accommodations, individually controlled heat and air conditioning, restaurant style dining, private dining areas for visits with family and friends, day rooms, a state-of-the-art rehab gym, transportation for outside events, telephones, private satellite televisions and the overall  homelike environment.

Cement block walls have been plastered and papered.

There are three nurse stations.

With all the rehabilitation services, 40 percent of residents are able to return home after a stroke or heart attack.

The day room has a sink and coffee bar and photos of Sundstrand’s heyday and a Greater Dowagiac Association trade show at the Armory.

Like a hotel, there will be a TV channel devoted to The Timbers airing activities and menu news.

There are three bathroom styles, including “Euro showers.”

The physical therapy room will have new equipment installed the day before the grand opening.

This room, the activities room and all of the nurses stations have rooms with refrigerators purchased at our local Sears store.

The occupational therapy room also has a stove from Sears.

Fryman Construction is responsible for installing all of the non-brick, non-stone siding.
Baymont Inn and Suites and other area motels have been handy lodgings for workmen who didn’t want to travel long distances from their homes to work on this project.

One supervisor liked the area so much  he purchased a home just east of town in the Twin Lakes area.

Several former employees return while others come from surrounding communities.
Some have years of experience in health care while others are newly certified.

The Timbers is now situated at 55432 Colby St., where furious landscaping and planting continued Thursday afternoon.

The skilled health care and rehabilitation facility’s phone number is 782-7828.