|
by Sue Orsen
Several jewels have come to adorn the streets, neighborhoods and business district of Victoria in recent times. A peruser of these pages is aware of their mother lode, their mining and cutting, their polishing, their setting.
You've come to see such jewels as the Clock Tower Building, the Kid Talk Building, Holy Family Catholic High School, Shores of Stieger Lake Condo-miniums, Victoria Elementary School, St. Victoria Catholic Church, Mount Olivet Lutheran Church, the Victoria Field House and Ice Arena, the Water Treat-ment Plant, new businesses and also elaborate parks and playgrounds.
The most recent jewel is Emerald Crest of Victoria, an assisted living home for senior citizens, constructed among neighborhoods and along a ravine at the intersection of Bavaria Road and 86th Street. Approximately 75 community people attended a grand opening cele-bration on October 13th, 2005, having been invited to tour the facility, meet the stone cutters, and make introductions.
***
Gregg Getchell and Joe Guertin are managing partners and owners of Emerald Crest. Getting to know them is the same as getting to know Emerald Crest.
Gregg's roots are in Osseo. He lives in Excelsior. His family includes wife Julie and children Brooke, Ben, and Leah.
Joe's roots are in Roseville. He lives in Plymouth. His family includes wife Jeanne and children Katie and Anna.
How did the two men get into this line of work? Stated Gregg, "I grew up in the nursing home business. My grand-father, Ken Heesen, built nursing homes in the 1960's in Minnesota, in the Twin Cities. I worked there as a kid, went to school, and became a licensed nursing home administrator in 1975 …
"In 1987 Joe hired me as an opera-tions manager with a national senior health care company, and we worked together for ten years, in facilities nationwide. It was in 1998 that we decided to leave that company and go into a specialized area of senior care. We developed a different dementia model."
Joe's story is not entirely different. "Out of college I went to work for an accounting firm and became a CPA. The firm specialized in long term care, which had a lot of cost reporting. After that, I worked as chief operating officer for 16 years at a Minneapolis based senior health care company and grew up in that organization, traveling across the states for them …
"But I got tired of getting on an air-plane every week. I wanted to stay close to home. I talked to Gregg and we saw unmet needs in senior care. We spent a lot of time designing and developing a new model, a new kind of home. We spent a year doing research. We wanted to create a nice normal living place. We created this building."
Emerald Crest of Victoria, their new-est facility, encompasses their twelfth and thirteenth buildings, each one similar in layout and design to those they built in Minnetonka, Burnsville, and Shakopee.
Emerald Crest of Minnetonka, built in 1999, includes three buildings, each of them accommodating 12 residents.
Emerald Crest of Burnsville, built in 2000, includes five buildings, each of them also accommodating 12 residents.
Emerald Crest of Shakopee, built in 2002, includes three buildings, two of them accommodating 12 residents, the other 14 residents.
Emerald Crest of Victoria, built in 2005, includes two buildings, each of them accommodating 15 residents. The first one is already home to eight residents; the second home, adjacent to the first, will be available for occupancy in November, 2005.
The buildings (the homes) do not appear institutional on the outside nor on the inside. There is a large gathering space with a fireplace, library, and piano, kitchen facilities, laundry room, offices, a large dining area, patios and plantings, and each resident has a private room.
Gregg pointed out that each of the four Emerald Crest sites has its own dedicated staff, yet staff could be shared if necessary because the houses, equipment, and facilities are the same in Victoria, Minnetonka, Burnsville, and Shakopee.
"But these are our people. We select them. We train them," he emphasized. "We do not go to an outside pool." Many of the people selected and trained by Emerald Crest have been with Gregg and Joe since the beginning.
Click here to continue "Another Jewel."
|
|
