COOK – The Cook Nursing Home expansion and remodeling project will receive additional funds from the Department of Health to help pay for the $7 million to $7.5 million project. Depending on the nursing home’s occupancy rates, the amount available for the project could be $3.8 million or more.

The facility received word recently that the Department of Health will adjust the nursing home’s property rate, increasing the amount by $15.70 per resident per day, once the construction project is completed.

Administrator Teresa Debevec said the current occupancy rate is about 95 percent. But in calculating the amount the nursing home would receive, she used an estimate of 90- percent occupancy. That comes to about $152,400 annually. Spread over the 25-year repayment period of the loan that the Orr-Cook Healthcare District expects to take to fund the project, that works out to $3.8 million.

“That’s at least half of the project’s costs,” said Debevec.

Although Minnesota placed a moratorium on new nursing home beds and construction, it does permit exceptions for remodeling outdated facilities or creating more private rooms.

The Cook Nursing Home currently offers no private rooms, according to Debevec. “There are no showers in the rooms and, in one case, we have four residents sharing a room.”

Debevec also noted that closet space for residents is severely limited.

The nursing home project would add 16,377 square feet to the existing nursing home and convert the rooms, which are now semi-private, to private rooms.

McGough Construction has been tapped as the construction manager for the project. Architect for the expansion and remodeling is DSGW, which specializes in health care projects.

DSGW also served as architect for the hospital’s $3.8 million expansion in 2012, which added 3,000 square feet of new space and remodeled 10,000 square feet of space.

The Cook Nursing Home project also received a $200,000 grant from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board for infrastructure improvements related to the project.

A grant request to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development was rejected. DEED said although the project would create more than 45 temporary construction jobs, it didn’t create enough permanent jobs to qualify for funds.