An assisted living community in Bath that opened nearly a century ago on the banks of the Kennebec River as the Old Folks Home will undergo a significant expansion as a result of qualifying for $10 million in federal loans.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree and Virginia Manuel, state director of the U.S. Rural Development Administration, made the announcement Monday at the Plant Home on Washington Street.

About 100 people gathered there to hear that the money will be used to build a new 50,000-square-foot facility on land next to the existing assisted-living community. The Plant Home is located just south of the Bath Iron Works shipyard.

Pingree, quoting figures provided by the Census Bureau, said that by 2030 one in every four people in Maine will be a senior citizen. Currently, the median age in Maine is the highest of any state in the country.

“We all age and we all get older, but not everyone can stay in the home they’ve lived in,” Pingree, a Democrat who represents Maine’s 1st District, said in a statement released by her office. “That’s why it is so important to have a place like the Plant Home where you can get care when you need it in your community, around people you know and near your family.”

Pingree is married to S. Donald Sussman, majority share owner of MaineToday Media, which publishes the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel.

 

 

Thomas Plant, a wealthy industrialist who specialized in shoe manufacturing, was determined to do something to improve other people’s lives, according to a history of the Plant Home on its website.

In 1916, he purchased, built and endowed the Old Folks Home at 1 Washington Street in Bath, which later became known as the Plant Home. It is 3½ stories tall and stands beside the Kennebec River.

“This home is founded on my sincere belief that those who have lived honest, industrious lives and are without means or friends to take care for them, have earned the right to be cared for,” the website quotes Plant as saying.

The $10 million in funding, a combination of a direct loan and a federal guaranteed loan, is being provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Rural Development Administration is an agency of the USDA.

Manuel said her agency wants to support projects like the Plant Home expansion because it will create construction jobs and staff positions, as well as benefit families and their loved ones in a rural community.

The new facility will feature 45 assisted living units, according to Pingree. It will more than double the facility’s capacity – the Plant Home currently provides 37 units of assisted living. There are also 11 independent living apartments on the Plant Home campus off Washington Street.

Assisted living is different from nursing-home care in that it offers people the opportunity to live independently with a lower degree of support from a skilled nursing staff.

Marla Davis, who lives in Woolwich, said she knows firsthand about the quality of care that Plant Home and its staff have provided. Her grandmother and her mother – both now deceased – lived at the Plant Home.

“The environment is very dignified and the care is very compassionate,” said Davis, who served on the Plant Home’s board of directors for six years.

Don Capoldo is executive director of the Plant Home.

“This is the culmination of a community working together. We’ve been working on this project for five years and have had tremendous support from the entire community,” Capoldo said in a press release.

The city of Bath has approved the permits needed for the expansion.

 

Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com

Copy the Story Link