Centers at St. Camillus prepares for improvement project

GEDDES — The Centers at St. Camillus, a nonprofit health-care facility in the town of Geddes, is preparing for an improvement project meant to relocate and improve its resident-gathering space.

The project, which the facility hopes to complete before the end of the year, should begin in early March, says Christine M. Kearney, vice president for rehabilitation and community-based services at the Centers at St. Camillus.

The Centers’ desire to expand its community-based services prompted the project, which will cost about $160,000, she says.

“So we opened the social-day program in order to provide another array of services to people who are living at home but are in need of oversight and supervision during the day,” Kearney says.

Community-based services are for people who may have incurred some type of disability and may need additional support to continue living at home, she explains.

The project’s first phase involves the relocation of the organization’s resident-gathering space. The Centers at St. Camillus will use a $23,000 grant to cover the cost of the first phase.

The organization on Jan. 7 announced that the John M. & Mary L. Gallinger and John F. Marsellus Funds awarded the funding. The Central New York Community Foundation, Inc. recently notified the Centers at St. Camillus about this grant funding.

The first phase involves taking an area that the facility’s pharmacy is vacating, along with a storage area, and creating a new resident-gathering room, Kearney says.

The new location for the facility’s resident-gathering room is in a more central location compared to the some of the long-term care units, according to Kearney. It’s also close to the dining room and located near the elevators that go up to the second and third floors.

The updated room “will be a little bit larger space; will be closer to the front door so when family members come in and want to have a family gathering, it’ll be convenient for families as well,” Kearney says.

CBD Construction, LLC of Syracuse is handling the construction work, she adds.  

Once the work on the new resident-gathering space is complete, the project’s second phase involves moving a beauty salon that is located near the facility’s sub-acute rehabilitation unit closer to the end of one of the long-term care units.

“The third phase [will involve] taking the vacated, existing resident-gathering room, the vacated existing beauty salon and merging that space with two smaller therapy gyms that are all within this one block right alongside our sub-acute rehab unit,” Kearney says.

To finance the total cost of more than $160,000, the Centers contributed more than $66,500 for the architectural design and development, along with environmental services, she says.

Besides the $23,000 in grant funding the Centers will use for the first phase, it also needs to raise more than $70,000 cover the remaining costs, which total more than $93,000.

The Centers at St. Camillus needs nearly $37,000 to relocate the beauty salon, which is part of the second phase.

The organization is among the 13 groups that will benefit from the charity preview event for the Syracuse Auto Dealers Association annual Auto Expo. The charity preview is set for Feb. 12. The Centers at St. Camillus will use that funding toward the second phase, Kearney says.

Beyond that funding, the organization also plans to seek additional grants, contributions, and conduct additional fundraising to meet the goal, she says.

Founded in 1969, the Centers at St. Camillus is located at 813 Fay Rd. It offers  inpatient and outpatient services including subacute and brain injury rehabilitation programs; continuing care (nursing home); outpatient rehabilitation, home health care; medical transport and a variety of other support services.

Aileen Balitz is president and CEO of St. Camillus.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com