Baptist Home Breaks Ground On New Building - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Baptist Home Breaks Ground On New Building

For many elderly people across North Dakota, they rely on provided assistance when they no longer can care for themselves.

One of the Skilled Nursing and Senior Independent Living facilities in Bismarck will move their residents in the next year.

Tonight we show you how the Baptist Home is breaking ground on a new 25 million dollar facility to better suit the elderly population.

It may be just a piece of land today, but just a little over a year from now, this land will be home for more than 100 seniors.

"Our present building was built in 1948, and then changes in 56, 65, it's the old automobile getting repaired and no longer meets the needs of our residents," Augie Pepple, Administrator of Baptist Home said.

At the current Baptist Home many residents are roomed up with others, but the new facility will offer more privacy.

"About 77 percent of our rooms will be private rooms, whereas now, that number is quite a bit smaller," Pepple said.

Plus those who will live in the new building will also have their own bathroom.

The new home will initially focus on skilled nursing and rehabilitation therapy, but if demand grows in others areas, they'll be ready to accommodate the need.

"We do have 36 senior apartments, we do not plan on replacing those initially, but we do have enough land, whatever the market demand is down the road, whether it's assisted living, basic care, elderly apartments, we would look to fill that need."

So this current groundbreaking, could be the first of many on this site, to help better accommodate the needs of our elderly population.

The target date for the new Baptist Home is currently set for August of 2013.

They're also working with a developer that has some potential uses for the current building.

Because once the new building is up in running the Baptist Home will only be operating out of the new facility.