Veterans Facility, Jobs Escape McHenry County

In a recent Northwest Herald column in the Northwest Herald Woodstock’s Don Peasley revealed the McHenry County loss of a 205-bed Veterans nursing home and supportive living facility to Rockford.

It’s a $70 million facility, according to the Rockford Register-Star.

That’s significant economic development.

Originally planned for Woodstock by Alan Belcher, who runs Hebron’s Transitional Living Services out of an old motel on Route 47 north of town, an offer of 30 acres of free land tilted the economic balance from Woodstock to west of Rockford.

The Lakewood SportsPlex is going to cost $40 million. You will note that $70 million is a higher number.

Gone are the local construction jobs, not to mention the permanent staffing that a new Woodstock nursing home would require.

So, instead of being in the 8th congressional district of Melissa Bean and Jack Franks’ and Pam Althoff’s legislative district, the facility is ending up in Don Manzullo’s 16th.

Three hundred new jobs intended for Woodstock are now going west of Rockford. Not the convenient side of Rockford for McHenry County residents either.

A few years ago U.S. Senator Dick Durbin and Manzullo got about $500,000 in infrastructure funding for the development.

It’s now called the Campus of Care and it involves three parts:

  • a memory care facility for seniors (Ara Gardens Senior Living)
  • an autism care facility for children (Tapestry Center for Autism) and
  • a traumatic brain injury facility primarily for wounded soldiers called Warriors’ Gateway

Besides Belcher, two other McHenry other McHenry County connections were revealed by a Rockford Register-Star article of July 9th:

Grant Shumway of Algonquin, who heads Cary’s Revere Healthcare. Revere was the private management firm that used to manage McHenry County nursing home, Valley Hi.

The Rev. James Swarthout of St. Paul Episcopal Church of McHenry, who spoke on the adult autism project.


Comments

Veterans Facility, Jobs Escape McHenry County — 1 Comment

  1. A great loss for Woodstock. As I recall, the City Council heard this facility pitched, when the promoters of the K-9 baseball stadium gave a status report. They were looking for a relief pitcher to save the game, and the game hadn’t even started yet.

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