What to do with this old house.

The plan at the moment is to tear it down and put up a parking lot, but the fate of the old Acropolis Manor building is still on the minds of city council. Once the new Manor is completed and the residents have been transferred, Northern Health had hoped to tear down the structure and provide for adequate parking for the new building.

City Council however is looking into other possible uses for the building, in the way of services for seniors in non health related forms.

The Daily News featured the issue as its front page headline story in Thursday’s paper.

COUNCILLORS MULL NEW USE FOR OLD ACROPOLIS BUILDING
Council wonders if Northern Health can find a new life for replaced building
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Pages one and three

City councillors doubt there’s going to be any future health related use for the old Acropolis Manor building after the replacement facility is built.

But that’s not going to stop them from asking about using the building for some other purpose.

“I think to say at this point, with any measure of certainty, what is going to happen to the building would be speculation,” said Coun. Tony Briglio.

“Although I think there have been some sentiments put forward by the community base saying ‘let’s see and spend some efforts to see if this facility can be used for some other purposes closely related to health.”

Northern Health is currently in the process of replacing Acropolis Manor with a new long-term care facility. A new facility is needed because there aren’t enough spaces in the old facility and it doesn’t meet the needs of its residents.

Briglio said the indications seem to be that there are issues with the building that would prevent it from being used for other health purposes.

“But having said that, there is nothing stopping us from asking that question or bringing it forward to our list of concerns,” he said.

NH has said the current Acropolis Manor will be torn down.

“(Acropolis) will be between the hospital and the new facility and the challenge for us was always providing the food, the laundry and the house-keeping support,” said Sue Beckerman, NH”s Health Services Administrator while at a meeting last September with senior citizens.

“We will continue to do so, so we need to make sure we’ll have a covered link so that we can manage the transportation… of all the things we may need to take place between the facilities.”

The splayed-out cross design of the building also requires that Acropolis comes down in order to put in adequate parking.

The city is currently putting together a list of its priorities for the third annual Central Municipal Association meeting on health.

The meeting takes place March 2.

I would venture to say that priority number one for our community, if I have heard it once I have heard a thousand times, it is “let’s beef up home support until such time as we have a replacement for Acropolis Manor,” said Briglio. “And that is the priority for the regional hospital district, that is a priority for this community and I know it is something they (NH) are working on.”

Council is continuing to hear concerns from citizens about the state of home support in Prince Rupert.

City staff will be working with council during the next week and expect to present a list of health care priorities for the NCMA meeting February 28.