Region of Queens councillors have approved an extra $33,272 in work at Hillsview Acres to prepare for elevator upgrades at the facility. (Facebook)
UPDATED 3:55 p.m. Friday
It’s going to cost a little more to upgrade the elevator at a nursing home in north Queens.
Region of Queens councillors held a special meeting on Wednesday to approve an extra $33,272 for electrical and alarm panel work at Hillsview Acres in Greenfield.
The region owns and operates the 29-bed long-term care home.
Joanne Veinotte, the region’s director of corporate services, told councillors that in 2022, the contractor responsible for maintaining and inspecting the elevator told staff “that it was nearing its end of life. Should something happen to the elevator we would not be able to replace it in a timely manner.”
Council had already approved $86,250 in their 2023/24 capital budget for the work on the facility’s elevator.
But when the elevator contractor, TK Elevator, visited Hillsview in the spring, workers found that the existing alarm panel and supporting electrical components needed to be upgraded to accommodate the work on the electrical components of the elevator.
The extra costs break down as follows:
Alarm panel upgrade – $21,913
Basement changes to accommodate new access – $2,077
Electrical work to install new panel $7,914.50
Veinotte told councillors that the elevator contractor is due to be at the facility in the second week of August to do the work.
“All of the panel work has to be done before they come which is why we had this sense of urgency to come and ask for council’s approval for this unbudgeted expense.”
Councillors voted unanimously to approve the extra cost and to fund it from the Hillsview Acres reserve fund, which sits at more than $800,000.
(L-R)Christopher Clarke, Kim Masland, Darlene Norman and Andrew MacVicar at the groundbreaking for the new Queens long term care facility. Photo Ed Halverson
Years of wrangling to get financing and another two years of planning culminated in a groundbreaking ceremony Monday at the site of the new Queens long-term care home.
Public Works Minister and MLA for Queens Kim Masland and Mayor Darlene Norman joined Queens Manor Executive Director Andrew MacVicar and Board Chair Christopher Clarke at the podium to announce the first physical steps to building the new facility across the parking lot from Queens Place.
In her remarks, Masland said providing a new long-term care home is the reason she got into politics.
“I know Christopher, when he came to me we started talking about this in 2017 when I was elected and I said if I ever make government I’ll make you one promise and it’s the only promise I’m going to make anyone and that is I will deliver the funds for a new long-term care facility in Queens, and here we are.”
Once completed, the new care home will replace the county’s two existing facilities, the privately run Queens Manor and the Region of Queens’ Hillsview Acres.
Norman says the municipal facility has served its purpose for decades and with the new care home, residents have a lot to look forward to.
“It’s been part of the Region for so long, there will be many that will miss it. But to know that the residents are moving into a new facility surrounded by people and children and playgrounds and skate parks and life, it’s a wonderful thing.”
Combined, the aging facilities can currently accommodate 90 residents while the new home will increase that capacity by 22 bringing the total number of available beds in Queens up to 112.
MacVicar says the building is designed with the most modern best practices in mind and was the result of much consultation between residents, staff and professional architects.
“We were very keen to include the people who will use the facility on a day-to-day basis, hands on. So, we included people who work in laundry, people who work in the kitchen, our CCAs our nurses, our environmental staff, our residents, family input, all the way up to board input, and just overall community input. There are a lot of hands and a lot of minds that were involved in the creation of the plan.”
Construction of the new Queens long term care home gets underway. Photo Ed Halverson
Clarke says he’s worked since 2013 to get a new long-term care facility for Queens and is delighted the province stepped up to secure financing.
“It’s a little under $100 million. Nova Scotia Housing is financing the project for the Queens Manor board. We will own the facility. It will be mortgaged, I suspect, over 40 years so we repay Nova Scotia Housing to pay down that mortgage.”
The new, as yet unnamed long-term care home is scheduled to open in 2026.
To hear the broadcast of this story click play below.
After five meetings and hours of deliberation, the Region of Queens approved the 2023/24 budget at the most recent council meeting Tuesday, April 25.
Between the operating and capital budgets, the water utility and Hillsview Acres, the municipality is projecting $44 million in spending.
The budget includes big ticket items like $8 million for the construction of a new library and outdoor pool without raising property taxes.
We’ll have a more detailed breakdown of the budget later this week.
As the meeting continued, council approved the creation of three new public works positions.
The department will be hiring a Civil Engineering Technologist, Operations Coordinator, and a Survey Technician.
Council then awarded nine different community groups between $1,500 and $10,000 each from the Community Investment Fund.
The money will help the various groups including the Hank Snow Society, Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute, and this station, QCCR with operational expenses.
The Greenfield Community Park Society were the first-ever recipients of a capital grant from the Community Investment Fund.
The society will receive $32,000 to help offset the $124,000 cost of installing new equipment including: play structures, lighting, a community fireplace and garden behind Greenfield Recreation Centre/Church and the Greenfield School.
Council then agreed to hire Gerald Walsh Associates to conduct the search for a new CAO to replace the outgoing Chris McNeill.
Finally, a request for the construction of a “Little Free Library” was deferred until staff can complete the new policy for placing of memorials in public spaces.
The next Region of Queens Council meeting will be held May 9 at 9:00am in council chambers.
Site plan for new Queens Long Term Care Home. Photo Region of Queens Council Agenda
The Queens Home for Special Care Society is asking the municipality to sell them more land and help cover the costs of building a road to the new care home being built near Queens Place.
At the recent Region of Queens Council meeting society chair Christopher Clarke and Executive Director of Queens Manor Andrew MacVicar appealed to council to cover part of the $400,000 they estimate it will cost to build a road and underground infrastructure to the new facility.
The society is paying close to a million dollars to buy the land at Queens Crossing from the municipality.
In the past, regional council has reinvested proceeds of land sales at that location back into the site.
The current council decided last month to not extend the Queens Place Road when they voted against building the new library on the site.
That left responsibility for building a road to the new care facility with the Queens Home for Special Care Society.
When addressing council, Clarke said their construction timelines are extremely tight and road construction to the new home site must begin this summer.
“Deputy Mayor, it has to be this year for us. Obviously the first thing that we do is to start pushing dirt to start construction,” said Clarke. “We hope to be doing that in July, August, kind of thing, so yes, we’ve got to do it tout de suite.”
Including the road construction in their plans may mean the society will have to move the entire build closer to the road by almost 70 metres.
Clarke explains the design is planned with residents and staff in mind to enjoy a southwest view that will maximize the light.
Moving the build will allow the construction to proceed without reorienting the building.
“When you’re dealing with seniors in homes is that it will also be facing activity at Queens Place,” said Clarke. “The coming and going, the people going to the skateboard park, even people in the parking lot we know from the Manor that anything happening outside the Manor is a is a key interest to the residents there and so the orientation of that building which had been carefully planned, is important.”
Mayor Darlene Norman says she has heard from the Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing expressing their concern that the province is providing a million dollars to pay for the land and the municipality is unwilling to build a road to the new care home.
Norman would like the municipality to be a good partner in this important project.
“In my opinion, we need to do what I believe our area residents feel is right. And I suspect the majority of people in Queens County would expect us, if we’re getting $1,000,000 so the province can build, along with the Queens Care Society, can build this exceptional replacement facility for Hillsview and Queens Manor, that we build them a road to the driveway,”said Norman.
Council will consider the request and make a decision on funding at a future council meeting.
Region of Queens Council packed a lot into their final meeting of the year.
Following a public meeting that took most of the morning, council voted against selling the South Shore Regional Airport. Instead, they will continue to operate the facility and will look to sign the Nova Scotia Drag Racers Association and the South Shore Flying Club to new leases.
Rumclo Developments Ltd and Van Der Pas design made a presentation proposing to build 124 units on 23 acres of waterfrontage at 133 Shore Road if the Region agrees to pick up the $1.5 million tab to extend water service to the development.
Council will weigh the proposal and make the decision as part of the upcoming annual budget process.
Representatives of Hillsview Acres Long Term Care home provided a yearly update. While all regular positions are filled, the facility is searching for part-time staff.
Queens Manor has been providing some assistance to Hillsview Acres.
Both facilities will be merged and replaced when the new Long Term Care Home is built and ready in four years.
A couple of items that have been bouncing around the latest agendas have been resolved.
Council accepted terms of reference for the new pool committee, voted down spending up to $10,000 towards the cost of creating a Bioeconomic Development Zone and will prioritize clearing shrubs that obstructs traffic at Market and Henry Hensey Drive.
Councillors Maddie Charlton and David Brown will sit on a committee to update the Region’s communications strategy.
Council also considered a Development Agreement that would allow a 7-unit short term rental building in Hunts Point to be converted to multi-unit residential housing.
A public hearing on the matter will be held in council chambers January 10.
Council agreed to replace a 2010 work truck that is past its useable life with a new ¾ ton for $75,000 plus tax.
The Region will write off almost $10,000 in uncollectable debt owed to the municipality to get it off the books.
Council received a staff report detailing when council could request a traffic study.
They were informed they could make the request when making an amendment to the Land Use Bylaw or when adopting a Development Agreement but generally the decision to trigger a traffic study is left to the engineer or planner of the traffic authority.
And finally, Region Staff will now be calling for the tow truck if a vehicle is impeding snow clearing operations.
RCMP informed the municipality they don’t have the available personnel to police those parking violations, but it is within the regions authority to do so.
The next council meeting will be held in council chambers starting at 9:00 am on January 10.
The sale of 11 acres of municipal land was the highlight of Tuesday’s Region of Queens council meeting.
The only session in August started with a presentation from the Queens Care Building Society providing an overview of the proposed new long-term care home set to replace Queens Manor and Hillsview Acres.
The four members representing the society highlighted the programs the new facility will provide along with one and two-storey options for construction of the new 112-bed structure.
The society’s request to secure municipal land adjacent to Queens Place and the Best Western hotel was granted during the in-camera portion of the meeting when council agreed to sell 11 acres for roughly $960,000.
Some long-standing items that had previously come before council were also approved.
Region staff will get to work crafting a bylaw to allow Queens to collect road levies on behalf of non-profit associations.
Mayor Darlene Norman says staff has assured council they have the capacity to take on the added responsibility using existing resources.
“It only seems right and proper that we help them where we can,” said Norman. “For example, we do not put streetlights on their roads. We do not have personal garbage collection at their doorsteps. So, if we can, as a council, help them improve their roads, then it is the right thing for us to do.”
Council also agreed to a request from the South Shore Regional Hospital Foundation to provide $100,000 for their Brighter Days Capital Campaign.
The money will be the Region’s one-time contribution towards the $115 million redevelopment at the area’s regional hospital which will expand the size of the emergency room and surgical areas, add new dialysis chairs, MRI suite and CT-scanner among other upgrades.
The vote was not unanimous as some councillors argued with the ongoing doctor shortage and frequent ER closures, council should be supporting Queens General first.
Norman says South Shore Regional is just as much Queens’ hospital as Queens General.
“We could give a million dollars to our hospital, and it is not going to help our ER situation at this point in time. Our foundation, the Queens Hospital Foundation, have encouraged us to provide this money to South Shore Regional,” said Norman.
Council also decided to pay between $50,000 and $60,000 to build an accessible ramp at the Town Hall Arts and Cultural Centre.
The new ramp will be located between the centre and the neighbouring RBC building to provide access from the parking lot into the Astor Theatre lobby.
Council then heard the Region took in just over $300,000 from the sale of 23 properties at the July 18 tax sale.
Approximately $48,000 will go to paying off outstanding debt with the remaining $250,000 or so, being put in the Tax Sale Surplus Reserve Account where previous owners have up to 20 years to claim the proceeds from the sale.
The first quarter financial review indicated the Region will be paying an additional $150,000 for garbage collection this year to cover the increase in fuel costs.
The original estimate was negotiated based on a cost of 89.64 cents per litre and in the past few months, the price of fuel has routinely been a dollar or more per litre above that.
Council was also made aware of human resource changes to the Region’s employee handbook to make the policies more inclusive and in keeping with 2022 standards.
Some of the policies hadn’t been updated in 20 years.
And the planning and development department is looking to increase the fees for some services to better reflect the cost of providing permitting and development amendments.
Council then moved in camera and approved the sale of the lot for the new long-term care facility as well as a piece of property in Milton for a multi-unit housing development.
Council will not meet again until the second Tuesday in September.
The preferred option for the new long-term care facility coming to Queens Place. Credit: Queens Care Building Society submission to Region of Queens Council
The Chair of the Queens Care Building Society says now that a site has been secured, they can close in on a final design for the new Queens long-term care facility.
Christopher Clark was reacting to Tuesday’s decision by Region of Queens council to sell the society 11 acres of land at Queens Place.
Clark says the province has outlined an 11-step process for building long-term care facilities and moving into the design phase puts them at step 3.
“As we complete each step it’s submitted to government for approval to make sure that we’re meeting their standards, not going overboard with spending money and so on,” said Clark. “By the time we get to step five, complete step five, the government will approve the whole thing and we can start construction.”
Clark says at this point in the process the group envisions the 112-bed facility will be situated on one level next to the Best Western with the entrance to the building facing Queens Place Emera centre.
He would like to see a park that is accessible to both residents and the public created at the front of the building and points out the new facility will tie into the existing resources people already enjoy on the site.
“The walking trail that goes around Queens Place, which is sacred land, really, won’t be affected,” said Clark. “In fact, it will become a real asset to the facility because it’s surfaced with crusher dust, so easier to push a wheelchair on and so people will be out there exercising or being taken around the trail.”
Clark is quick to note they have a team of architects and builders who are very experienced at designing long-term care facilities that integrate into the surrounding community, and the fine details of the plan will be worked out over the coming months.
He says no matter what the final design looks like, the experience for residents at the new facility will be far superior to the existing Queens Manor and Hillsview Acres.
Putting aside the obvious health benefits to residents, Clark says a new long-term care facility will also be a major economic driver for Queens.
“The economics are huge. Construction, the jobs, looking after people. You know, we have 103 people working at the Manor now, Hillsview Acres has, I think about 13. But with a new facility with 112 individual rooms, we’re going to need a much greater staff. So, there will be a lot of jobs and a lot of money being spent in the community.”
Clark expects the design work should be complete by early 2023 and is optimistic the new facility could be opening its doors by Labour Day 2025.
Future site of Queens long-term care facility. Photo Ed Halverson
Queens new long term care facility has found a home at Queens Place.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Region of Queens council voted to sell 11 acres of land adjacent to Highway 103 and the Best Western to the Queens Care Building Society.
The society stressed the need to secure land to keep the process moving on a timeline that will see a replacement for Queens Manor and Hillsview Acres in place before Labour Day of 2025.
Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman was enthusiastic in praising her fellow councillors for their unity on this project.
“I am so proud of the council of the Region of Queens who were unanimous in this decision,” said Norman.
The mayor says the 479,000 square feet of land will be sold at $2 a square foot, with the Region receiving somewhere in the neighbourhood of $960,000 with the money being reinvested into the development of the new site.
“That million dollars will be for infrastructure and improvements to all the lands at Queens Crossing,” said Norman.
The preferred option for the new long-term care facility coming to Queens Place. Credit: Queens Care Building Society submission to Region of Queens Council
The land around Queens Place Emera Centre has been tied to a couple of high-profile projects in recent months.
The site was the unanimous choice of the library steering committee to replace the Thomas Raddall Library before the idea was rejected by council.
The Queens Community Aquatic Society is also looking at the location to build a new pool, and construction of the new universally designed play park is currently underway.
Norman says residents of Queens will see the benefit of selling the land and securing the site for the new long-term care facility for years to come.
“And all of those things need infrastructure and money because they will belong to the Region,” said Norman. “This is a good start at developing the infrastructure for other future projects.”
Norman says building the new long-term care facility next to Queens Place means residents will be integrated into the community in which they live.
And while the province is footing the bill for the facility, the Region will continue to offer whatever technical and administrative help the Queens Care Building Society may need to see this project through to completion.
Region of Queens council took their last meeting on the road to the Pleasant River Community Hall.
The highlight of the agenda was council’s decision to invest almost $2 million to repair the failing air conditioning unit at the Liverpool Business Development Centre.
The meeting opened with the public comment section.
A couple of residents spoke asking council to put a pause on the permits to a controversial house being built on Eagle Head Beach while a third inquired about the possibility of adding more bylaw enforcement officers.
After that council went about approving the job descriptions for workers at Hillsview Acres long-term care facility.
The Region is mandated by the province to review the positions every four years.
From there, council voted to go ahead with the $1.9 million plan to install a new four-zone cooling system at the Liverpool Call centre.
Council then moved into the discussion phase of their meeting.
First up was a conversation around installing an accessible ramp at the Town Hall Arts and Cultural Centre in Liverpool.
Provincial law requires all government owned buildings to be accessible by 2030.
Council deliberated on the placement of the ramp and how it is to be enclosed.
The preferred option seems to be along the side of the building adjacent to the Royal Bank that leads from the rear parking lot.
The plan will be evaluated and brought before council in greater detail at a future meeting.
The last piece of business was a lively discussion on whether or not to form a pool committee.
The Queens Community Aquatic Society recently received a $3 million private donation towards the construction of a new pool and are looking for the region to begin construction as soon as possible.
The conversation revolved around who will make up the committee, what responsibility it will have and what will be asked of staff.
In the end, council decided to form a committee but what it will look like and what role it will play in the construction of a new pool has yet to be determined.
Council will hold a special council meeting Tuesday July 5 to discuss the location of the new library.
Repairs at Hillsview Acres long term-care home will have to wait after proposals came back way over budget.
The province had approved $273,000 to update washrooms, stairs and entry doors at the municipally owned facility.
Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman says the bids came back at $475,000 and $678,000.
“The administrator knew what needed to be done so contacted some contractors and came up with estimates that led us to the $273,000 price,” said Norman. I guess what was failed to be recognized is that this isn’t the same as doing repairs on your home.”
Norman says the repairs to the long-term care home must meet similar standards to hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
While the Region of Queens has a reserve fund set aside for Hillsview Acres, Norman says it’s up to the province to cover operational costs.
A new long-term care home is planned to replace both Hillsview Acres and Queens Manor over the next few years.
Norman says when the new facility is built the municipality will need that reserve to cover costs until Hillsview Acres can be sold.
“Who knows if there’s no buyer for it? Who knows what the cost would be if it has to be demolished? Which I hope that it does not get there,” said Norman. “I hope there will be a useful use someone will have. But we can’t spend all of our Hillsview reserve money on items that need to be done according to department of health standards.”
Norman says the Region’s finance department is working directly with the provincial health department to come up with an appropriate estimate and secure the funding needed to complete the repairs.
