Press Release

After 5 years of planning and waiting, members of the Island Living Inc. board broke ground for the ‘Island Living’ senior assisted living facility Aug. 28 in Bird Island. The project is the city’s third attempt to construct such a complex, and with the celebratory first cuts into the plot, the community can begin to see its 20 year vision come into focus.

“It gives me great pleasure to be here today,” Island Living Board Member Susie Peterson stated. “It’s like a dream come true. It’s taken a long time. We started [this project] seventeen, eighteen years ago. We went for a number of years, couldn’t quite get that [initial project] going, then took a break [from the efforts] for a number of years.”

Peterson went on to state that Bird Island Economic Development Authority (EDA) Director Gene Wenstrom was able to  develop a connection with Heartland Partners Senior Living Consultants, a group that had previously achieved a great deal of success developing and constructing smaller sized senior living facilities. After five years of working with Heartland’s consultants, and obtaining a 2.65 percent interest loan through the USDA’s Rural Community Cities Loan Program, the community’s project was able to secure its home.

Peterson continued by stating that the Covid pandemic, as well as multiple waves of inflated costs played a role in the delay of the project.

“The tremendous price increases were the biggest hurdles for us to overcome with this project,” Peterson noted. “That’s when Karl Nordin and Christopher Knoll stepped in and got the project back on track again. We are so grateful to them.” Still short of funds, Peterson stated that grants found by USDA Rural Development Program Director Terry Louwagie played a crucial role in subsiding project costs. 

“We are all familiar with the saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child.’ I firmly believe it took a village to make this project happen,” Peterson stated. “There are so many people involved in it. I want to thank everyone who helped on this project, but mostly I want to thank the Island Living board, the EDA board, and the city council. They were the ones on the end that had to figure out how to make up that last [funding] gap, and they had the confidence to vote ‘yes’ and move forward with the project.

“I mentioned that it takes a village, now it is going to take our village,” Peterson noted. “It’s going to take our town to help us at this point. We are at the point that we are going to start building. We’re so excited about that, but we know there are still hurdles ahead. We are going to need people to fill this [facility] to keep it over 90 percent full. So help us find those people that are going to need this facility and make use of it. It would be wonderful if we could be full when we open. That almost never happens, but this is a community that has made things happen before.”

The 12,000 square foot facility is expected to consist of fifteen living units, and plans to hire twelve full-time equivalent employees. The groundbreaking signifies the start of the project, with expectations that the project will take 10 months to complete. The board is hopeful that the building will be enclosed prior to the winter season.

Bird Island EDA Director Gene Wenstrom acknowledged the work that former and current city staff members dedicated to the project. Wenstrom noted that former City Administrator Deb Lingl’s work with the USDA was instrumental to keeping the project going, while current City Administrator Tracey Ahl was the driving force behind maintaining project deadlines. Wenstrom also noted that Neal Prokosch’s financial expertise was a guiding light for the community’s efforts while Susie Peterson’s dedication is a proud continuation of her family’s tradition of making Bird Island a better place to live.

“This is quite a day,” Neal Prokosch stated. “It’s been twenty years in the coming. I didn’t know if [this project] was going to happen before I needed to get into the facility, but we are going to have it. Thank you all for coming today, and thank you for your continued support of Bird Island.”

The waiting list to sign up to be a resident at the Island Living Senior facility can be found at the Bird Island City office or by clicking the button at the top of this page. 

Submitted and Wriiten by Ross Okins, Staff Writer, Renville County Register September 2023