PERRY NURSING HOME DEDICATED

PERRYVILLE -- Starting today, Catherine Besand will be able to roll through the halls of the Perry County Nursing Home to Rozier's Country Store and Hoeckle's Bakery and Deli. Those two longstanding Perryville institutions have opened small branches inside the new nursing home's Town Square Main Street.

Before, if nursing home resident Besand, who is 84 and uses a wheelchair to get around, wanted to visit either, she'd have to wait for a van ride to town.

The two stores, plus a beauty parlor, make up the little business district in the just-opened $3.7 million nursing home built next to the old nursing home from bonds approved by Perry County voters in 1994.

Hundreds of people attended ceremonies and toured the new nursing home Sunday afternoon.

Plans call for moving the residents in today, then selling more bonds and rebuilding the old wing into 44 assisted living units -- apartments for people who want more freedom and need less care than a nursing home offers. The center will provide them with three meals a day and transportation for shopping and medical needs.

Plans call for the new wing to be finished next June, said Bonnie Schnurbusch, director of marketing for the nursing home.

The newly opened nursing home will not house more residents than the old one, said Charles Rauh, nursing home administrator, but it does upgrade the residents' living conditions.

Besand was particularly excited about having toilets attached to every single- and double-occupancy room. "I like quiet," she said. "There won't be all of them running up and down the halls to go to the bathroom all night."

She also likes the larger dining room and shops.

The new facility has a special locked area, The Creative Care Unit, for patients with Alzheimer's disease, designed to keep them from wandering, Schnurbusch said.

The octagonally shaped halls with the residents' rooms surrounds a courtyard that will one day have a gazebo, Schnurbusch said.

Built in 1969, the original nursing home has had 99 percent occupancy for years, said Pat Bihr, administrator of Perry County Memorial Hospital. He expects the waiting list to grow because of the new facility.

State officials would not allow the nursing home to add more beds because Perry County as a whole has more nursing home beds than it needs, Bihr said.

Although the Perry County government owns the land and buildings, a private, not-for-profit board of directors oversees it. That board, in turn, contracts with Perry County Memorial Hospital to operate the nursing home.