Why Assisted Living and Memory Care Matter in Mountain Communities | Ep 3

What happens when a community does not have enough senior housing, assisted living, or memory care options?

In this episode of Real Estate in the Rockies, Ashley Kappel and Jessica Chariton sit down with local leaders Marilyn Bouldin and Andi Bruno to discuss the growing need for senior housing in Salida and across Colorado mountain towns.

As populations age and housing options remain limited, communities are facing difficult questions about how to support residents who want to stay but may not have the care options they need.

This conversation explores how real estate, healthcare, and community planning intersect, and why this issue impacts more than just seniors.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why senior housing and assisted living are critical in mountain communities
• The challenges of creating memory care and aging support locally
• What happens when residents are forced to leave their community for care
• How nonprofit efforts like Places to Age are working toward solutions
• Why this issue affects families, housing, and the broader community

Ashley helps connect the legal and planning considerations around housing and care facilities. Jessica brings insight into how housing limitations impact availability and demand in the local market.

Marilyn and Andi provide firsthand perspective on the needs within the community and the efforts underway to address them.

Marilyn Bouldin
Marilyn Bouldin is a retired registered nurse and former Director of Chaffee County Public Health. She has served on the board of Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center and is a cofounder of Chaffee County Women Who Care. Marilyn currently serves as Vice Chair of the board for Places to Age, a nonprofit focused on bringing assisted living and memory care to the community.

Links:
 Website: http://www.placestoage.org
Facebook: Places to Age

Andi Bruno
 Andi Bruno is a Colorado native and retired business owner with a background in Silicon Valley startups. She founded her own business in 2003 and successfully exited in 2014. Since returning to Colorado, she has been actively involved in community efforts and previously served as Chair of Places to Age, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding senior housing and care options in Chaffee County.

Links:
 Website: http://www.placestoage.org

Real Estate in the Rockies is the podcast exploring Colorado mountain real estate, housing, land use, development, zoning, community growth, and mountain living in Salida, Buena Vista, Chaffee County, and communities across the Rockies.

Hosted by Colorado real estate attorney Ashley Kappel and local realtor Jessica Chariton, the show brings together developers, community leaders, housing experts, investors, and local voices to break down the conversations shaping mountain towns today.

Whether you’re buying property in Colorado, navigating real estate development, exploring affordable housing challenges, or simply interested in the future of mountain communities, Real Estate in the Rockies delivers real conversations and local insight from the people living and working in these communities every day.

Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify for new episodes every week.

Connect with Jessica: https://jessicachariton.homesmartpreferredrealty.com/

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Please share this podcast with anyone who is interested in Real Estate development, Community Conversations about living in Colorado Mountain Towns. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

We had the pleasure of interviewing Marilyn Bolden and Andy Bruno, who are the founding board members, uh, two founding board board members of places to aid in our community.

SPEAKER_06 0:12

They have a $30 million project that they are working to get going in our community and trying to help bring assisted living to memory care. Memory care, assisted living, independent living too, to our community. The tagline that really struck me was everyone in our community has one thing in common. We are all aging. And this is a big issue for mountain, rural mountain communities specifically. We don't have a lot of it, and people end up having to leave their homes and leave their friends and never come back.

SPEAKER_04 0:49

Yeah. Very important part of our community.

SPEAKER_06 0:52

Yeah, so this will be a great interview. Welcome to Real Estate in the Rockies, a Colorado real estate podcast focused on mountain town real estate. I'm Asha Kappel, a real estate attorney, and I'm Jessica Parison, local realtor. And we're here to help you understand what's really happening in the Rockies. We're getting both a legal perspective and reality so you can make smart competitive decisions in the Colorado real estate market. Real estate in the property.

SPEAKER_04 1:30

Real estate isn't just about property, it's about community. Today we have Andy Bruno and Marilyn Balden. Did I say that right? Um, they are from Places to Age, and we're excited to interview them about um their organization and all the things that have get an update on everything that's going on with the organization. And I'd love to know a little bit about um what brought you to Places to Age. I know you all were both founding members of the board. Is that right? Yeah. And I I've known you for a while, but I haven't gotten the update lady. So tell us tell us about like how you got involved with the organization and and started it really.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

And you know, you know, I have a little more history than Andy does because uh way back when I was the director of Chafee County Public Health, I became aware that there were problems with uh older adults having to leave our community to find supportive housing. And so 10 to 12 years ago, we started a task force that started looking into this. We got a grant, a small grant to keep going with our task force. We tried to meet regularly and even talked to some developers, and really nothing ever happened, and there was kind of a lull until Andy and some other people uh got energized and said, let's revisit this. And so about three years ago now, we started meeting and became places to age.

SPEAKER_04 3:19

Okay. So tell us a little do you want to time?

SPEAKER_06 3:22

I wanted to hear more about how you got introduced and involved.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

Marilyn is quite an inspiration in the community. Um, she's been involved with the startup of many important things. And one of them was Arc Valley Helping Hands. And a common friend of ours, Dee, invited me on the board to our um uh Helping Hands, Arc Valley Helping Hands. And during my work there, they were transitioning under public health. Okay. Okay. And um I was supposed to do a strategic plan at that time, but it was pretty clear that they really were, it was just operational and a strategic plan because they were moving under public health didn't make sense. And the one issue was um the need for senior housing, assisted living, memory care, et cetera, or continued continuum of care. And um, it was through uh Arc Valley Helping Hands that I was able to see, we would go visit seniors in their homes to help with like window wash up or stuffing or how they want my kids to do, leaf raking and social. Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 4:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

You know, and it's it's really needed in the community, but we would see people in their houses. Um it was basically they were older and it wasn't particularly safe and they were isolated. Right. And it became very clear to me. Um, I moved with my husband here to Chafee County in 2019, and it became abundantly clear that uh the services of assisted living memory care, like I have for my mom on the front range, didn't exist here. And when we would visit these homes, I was going, oh, these people really need uh assisted living. And then I had a neighbor whose husband needed memory care. And they kept him, it was at the end of COVID, it wasn't uh particularly uh a good experience for their family, and it was very hard. They probably kept him six to eight months too long uh in their home. But then they found a facility in Pueblo or Colorado Springs, I forget which, but she didn't want to drive the canyon, right? Right, and she's an older woman, and she got a for her kids to be able to go visit her husband. Yeah you know, it was really heartbreaking for her, right? And um, it was that seeing that situation where I said, we've got to change something here. And that's when I started to work hard with Marilyn and the team. Um and uh there's uh uh a group uh for seniors that Molly has run. And Molly shop so a group of us broke off just to concentrate on this issue. That's beautiful. Yeah. But you didn't we I think we were all kind of the the amount of work it takes to bring something like this to fruition is beyond it's it's so well one person can't do it. No, well that's why we have a very robust board.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

None of us are very uh committed to this board. It's definitely a working board, and we're all older adults except for one of us who has a full-time job. Um, and so uh it's self-serving in a way because I'm looking at, oh, you know, I'm gonna possibly need this.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

We all want to spend our time with friends.

SPEAKER_06 6:49

Yeah, we're planning for the future.

SPEAKER_04 6:52

Yeah, that's really smart, and it's good for all of us in the community to know that like I'm grateful thinking about it, have those opportunities and issue for people for years to come.

SPEAKER_03 7:07

Yeah, but I I imagine that there's so many people who um come to Chaffee for for a job situation or want to live in the community, um, and they want to bring their their seniors, their elders with them. And it gets to a point, well, what happens? You know, do they have the medical medical care and do they have the housing for their loved ones? So we're not only helping the senior community, we're helping families.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Yeah. Um one of the issues um that I have found is when people move to Chafee County, they check out the medical care very much. They want to know if we have a good hospital, they want to know if they can have doctors, specialists. Nobody thinks about assisted living. Yeah, you know, and so then they move here and they say, What? There's no assisted living in the whole county.

SPEAKER_06 7:58

Yeah. And I can't even tell you how many uh houses I've sold where the family is just moving out. Yeah, they have to move the person to Denver, to Springs, to Pueblo.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

And there's my friend.

SPEAKER_06 8:12

Yeah, yeah, don't they get to have their people anymore? Right. Yeah, that's really hard.

SPEAKER_04 8:17

So what about other mountain communities? I mean, is Chafee is Chafee alone, or is there are there is this a problem that's widespread in Colorado, you know, where there's not enough should we excuse me, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

Should we talk about steamboat and then we talk about summit?

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Sure. Okay. Uh go ahead. You start with Steamboat. Oh, well, we've we made many, many visits all around the state because we wanted to learn as much as possible about what other people were doing and how they were doing it, and what we should avoid doing, and you know what their recommendations were. So we did. We went up to Steamboat Springs and um visited this fabulous um assisted living memory care skilled nursing. They had the skilled nursing, which is a nursing home. Uh I don't understand. Maybe we should explain what continuum of care means. Yes. Um, so sometimes a lot of times they refer to CCRC, so continuing care residential community. So it's all the way from independent living, which we're all doing right now, um, living at our own homes. And then if we need a little help, we go to the next level of assisted living, which is still independent living, but with some help if someone needs um medication supervision or transportation because they're no no longer driving or functionality.

SPEAKER_04 9:49

They come into the home sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Yeah. And then um we have quite a few people who are in need of memory care, which is a secured unit for people with dementia or Alzheimer's. Um, and then there's the skilled nursing facility. SNF is the SNF. A lot of people know that term. That's what Columbine is in Salida. So that's actually a nursing home, and that's the highest level of care where you might be bedbound, you might have a trach or something that can't be handled at a a different level.

SPEAKER_06 10:29

And forgive my ignorance, but I would ask so Columbine, is that how many beds are there?

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Like there's like about 60, but they only have 30 of them right now, I believe. Um only half of the facilities is open. And part of the reason they say is they have trouble finding staffing.

SPEAKER_06 10:51

That makes sense to you.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

They used to have memory care at s at Columbine. Um, it's owned by a for-profit company called Life Care. Um, and they discontinued it several years ago.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Okay. Interesting. Yeah. And it's an older facility. Yeah. Um, I do know, I don't know the current um executive director, but the previous executive director um did a very good job with limited resources. And so um, you know, the the nursing the Bucher. Uh who's the Macy? Yes, NAC Bucher. Yeah, yeah. He was he was uh uh one really good guy. Yeah, and he he did a good job, and I hope whatever he's gone on to is working well for him. Um but um so they do they've uh they've they cover the nursing uh nursing home or the skilled nursing end of the continuum of care. Right. It's the middle section um when people uh when people need to leave their home. Uh usually uh independent living that flows into uh assisted living and then the memory care add-on and then skilled nursing. So um we are going to offer um 66 units. 56 of those are gonna be between assist independent living and assisted living. Okay. That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_06 12:15

Yeah, you said Steamboat was a had a wonderful facility. And what are some of the things that you could have?

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah, that's about Casey's Pond, and um they have a very um supportive community there who actually rescued them from bankruptcy at one point. Um and they have uh it's a beautiful facility. It's a literally on a pond right in the middle of Steamboat. Um, the quality of care that we saw there was really yeah admirable.

SPEAKER_03 12:51

But what we learned from them is that they started uh building in 2013 and they used a market study that was overly ambitious and they overbuilt. So they they built this lovely large facility, um, thinking that this was going to be what was required in steamboat. But what they found out was that they they overbuilt, and so it took them so long to get to what we call stabilization, okay, right, that that they had financial problems.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Well, and also COVID happened then.

SPEAKER_03 13:25

They got multiple hits, yeah, right. But we learned from them not to overbuild. Okay. So we had a market study done, and the market study we're building to about a third of what the demand for the market study. Really?

SPEAKER_06 13:42

Quite the opposite of what I would have thought.

SPEAKER_04 13:44

No, that's very that's very interesting that you're you're well being careful.

SPEAKER_03 13:50

Oh, well, we we want uh not only do we want superb care, we want um financial responsibility and financial stability is one of the key things that we're measuring because this has to last in the community work for uh you know decades and decades and decades.

SPEAKER_04 14:08

Right. Uh so tell us about the vision for the community. You started to do that, Andy. Um, you know, you you said the number of beds and the number of people you can serve, but tell us a little bit more about what um, you know, what where are you in the process? Where do you hope to be soon?

SPEAKER_01 14:30

What do you have to do? We have this wonderful piece of land that was donated to us. Mr. Gentry, yeah, yes, family. And it's on County Road 120, which is the Fairgrounds Road. It's on the corner of the Meadowlark subdivision. Okay and it I was just out there the other day walking around the field. The view is to die for. I mean, the whole Collegiate Peaks range and it it's just gorgeous. Um, so so we were very fortunate to have this land donated.

SPEAKER_04 15:04

There was a huge last thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Um, we've been able to do a lot of pre-development work because of the community. Communities had been funding us um through hiring uh architect to do some initial architectural design, hiring um a consultant, WellAge, who's been uh very advanced, yeah, helping us figure out how to do this right. There they own other facilities and manage them in rural Colorado.

SPEAKER_03 15:38

So they specialize in helping facilities throughout rural Colorado get up and going. Can you say the name of that organization?

SPEAKER_06 15:44

It's Well Age. Well Age. I thought that's what you said. I just wanted to make sure it was right there. Okay. Yeah. And are they affiliated with the Steamboat Springs facility? No, they're not.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

Okay. We uh found them and um we put out an RFP for a consultant in this phase of planning, and they responded, and they've been a great partner for getting us to this point. That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_06 16:08

Can you go back to you were going to talk about Summit County a little bit?

SPEAKER_03 16:11

Okay, so Summit County um has uh the same problem. You know, they have a lot of elderly people, they have more uh my understanding of Summit, and you know, I've got just cursory understanding of Summit, that they have uh more uh second homeowners than even chafing. And so their population of seniors that need to be served um is approximately what we have to serve too. But land prices and housing prices are such that they didn't have a Mr. Treat that donated the land. So they too have a foundation that are trying to do what we're doing. They've been going at it for I think eight to longer than we have, eight to ten years, but they don't their struggle is the land, yeah, right. And we've gotten over that hurdle. That's right. Um, here in Chafee.

SPEAKER_06 17:04

But um so Summit has the same issues, their dynamics are slightly different than ours, but and their problems are the land issue makes it a bigger problem. I I think this was very forward thinking, and I'm really grateful that you all started this when you did, because that's one thing that I'm glad for in Slida too. It does feel like there's a lot of forward-thinking individuals in the community that have seen what has happened in other mountain towns and is thinking, well, we don't want that to happen here, so what do we do about it now?

SPEAKER_03 17:39

Right. So that's we're also uh uh it's right here for people our age. Yeah, the silver tsunami. I mean, it is very real. And Shanefee County, 31 point currently 31.5 percent of the population is um 65 plus. Yeah. Okay. And that's growing. 35 percent. So you see it's gonna be 31.5. 31.5% right now, it's 31.5. Almost a full third. Right. And we didn't think we'd get here till 2030, but we're already here. Okay, okay. So for the state demographer, and they project that that we'll be at uh in about four or five years, we'll be at 35%. Wow. That's you know that's you go to any event, right, and you see how many people have silver hair.

SPEAKER_06 18:27

Well, I was gonna say silver tsunami is a big word in real estate right now, too. Oh yeah, we hear about it all the time when we're doing real estate education because it's a a demographic that we need to pay attention to. And interestingly, um, a very lucrative demographic is usually how it's presented because people are downsizing or in situations where they can't be in their homes anymore, and families trying to figure out how to coordinate all of that.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

So there's a lot of single people who live in big houses now because their kids have grown and gone, their spouses gone one way or the other, and they are by themselves in this huge house.

SPEAKER_06 19:12

Well, and then the community issue that you brought up just a minute ago of them having to leave somewhere else and not having their friends anymore and their support system.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

Yeah, right. Well, they say one of the biggest determinants of health is socialization and people's um connectedness. And um Merlin's gonna be very healthy because she's very connected to so um uh but that's one of the biggest determinants of poor health is the interconnections that you can keep. And so uh we all love living here, and the facility that that we've uh um helped work through and design has beautiful views. And why does somebody move to Chape County? Yeah. The outdoors and the mountains and that beauty. And we want to give older people in the community that continued love and support um with those beautiful, yeah, the the the environment that we live in.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

And we want to make sure it's high quality too, someplace that I would want to go, or any of us would want to live there. So we've really, you know, given a lot of thought to how we want to design it and what kind of services we want. And for instance, we have it designed so that we have a medical office so that the a physician can come into our facility and see patients right there, yeah, or a physical therapist can come in and do therapy with someone, um, activities, um, a bistro, um beautiful views of the mountains in the dining room. We designed the dining room so it faces the mountain range and you know, little things like that. We're gonna have a walking trail around it because that's a big, big deal.

SPEAKER_06 21:03

Anyway, that's not the first time I ever heard about you. Was your walking group? I I came to one of those storytelling nights. Yeah, and the same thing. Oh, really? We are chafing. Yeah, and you and they had done a video of your walking.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Yeah. Well, we're right in the process of mowing a trail around the property. It's eight acres and it'll be uh like a half a mile, and I'm gonna lead some walks out there. That's great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:31

So how much does this all cost? How do you how do you get over that? Now you got the land, but how do you build this beautiful facility? Okay, so this is the hard part.

SPEAKER_03 21:41

Yeah. And this is where it's been um a lovely adventure. Let's put it that way. So uh working with uh Diesel, uh working with the costs, um, we determined that it's gonna be about 30 million if those costs hold. You know, you know, it's very dynamic what's going on in the world. Yeah. So right now our best understanding is this this is a $30 million project. And we have uh we built out performance and the business plan, um, which are quite complex but quite good. Uh we get lots of compliments on this. And that's because we hired uh owners, George Anderson, who's been, you know, a boon and a real blessing to our project. And he's brought the professionalism to really look at this project from a financial perspective. And um uh we've been approaching various banks and we've had um some good success. Okay. Um and um so we've been working with a couple of banks and that are working with us on the project. We applied to USDA for a direct loan uh they've told us no you know this is not a really particularly good time to go to the federal government for money. Uh they've told us no but we're doing an appeal process not that we you know we're just let's just say we're doing an appeal process um but we'll also be going for a loan guarantee um I always thought we should go to USDA just for the loan guarantee because that's uh relatively easy to get and we have two banks right now that will work with us to get that loan guarantee um we've we um have a somebody in the county that will be working with us for the other portions of the equity um and so the capital stack I would say you know we've got a lot of work this whole year yeah is focused on that capital stack sure uh and you know each day it shifts somewhat because so many new things are coming in for this capital stack but we've made some good progress and we see a path forward. That's great. I know it's it's hairy yeah but we see a good path forward.

SPEAKER_06 24:02

Tell us about timeline a little bit then if if you can so do you have the one I want or the let's say both.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Yeah maybe some wonderful donor will listen to this and say oh I want to be involved 2027 we are going to put a shovel in the ground and it's gonna take a couple years probably to build it.

SPEAKER_03 24:26

Yeah 15 to 18 months we think so we you know we had wanted uh Q1 Q2 27 I think it's not gonna be that you know probably be um Q2 Q2 Q3 is looking like um because there's some things that have to go on that have to find a place. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 24:47

Yes if this is a question for me like what's the best way for an average community member to help out right now.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

That is a great question.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

So we have a um we have a website and we uh have a way for people to um go on there and fill out a volunteer questionnaire if they're interested in volunteering it has some questions about what their interest is and how they'd like to participate.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

So that's pretty brand new but it's a link on there and it's pretty easy to do. We'll link that in the podcast in the show notes. Great.

SPEAKER_03 25:27

Yeah but we also have a matching funds campaign. Yes we're about ready to we had an uh an anonymous donor uh give us fifty thousand dollars and asked us to match it so we're gonna be launching that very soon in the next week actually for people to uh help us match that money hopefully and um and then for donors that want to be involved at a bigger level uh we will be starting a capital campaign we have already started all the work underneath that to make that happen for the bigger apps okay people that want to give 250 500 a million um and be part of this project wonderful that's even if it gets built yeah I'm thinking of all these other issues you can if do you want to go ahead or oh I I mean go ahead work like the workforce we you brought that up with Columbine and that's why they're only half open so it will be so that's why the hire of the operator is so crucial. And we have an RFP who've done a very professional RFP.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

George again um has helped us put together uh a very professional RFP that's going to uh three or four organizations um as operators okay um um to work with us the that's probably one of the most crucial decisions we as an organization because the operator makes or breaks yeah um you know the the quality within the facility and um so we're working that portion of the project we've been aware that's one of the reasons why we went to visit some other places we and figuring out how they do their staffing and what are the incentives to keep their long-term employees um because we don't want a lot of turnover we're also working with Colorado Mountain College they're um providing some education that we're gonna be needing like the medication administration people excuse me so it's the it's the operator that does the recruiting and the hiring and that's why we want somebody who's done this before in rural communities in Colorado.

SPEAKER_03 27:46

Got it okay yeah how does the affordable housing shortage play into this with the staffing well we we're hoping you know if you look at what's going on south with all the um affordable housing yeah and DV. Yeah there's gonna be more and more and more and you know we were giving given 10 acres two went to the city for parkland uh and then we have four that the building's gonna be on and another four and we're thinking of carving out one acre of that for workforce housing but we'd like to partner with somebody else for that workforce housing. But given what so the operator that we hire which is the crucial hire right um will be hiring staff and they have recruiting techniques and retention techniques that they've used in other facilities um throughout Colorado and we're hoping that's uh we think that um a year before we start construction they will start the process of of advertising recruiting getting interviewing yeah et cetera um so follow up question to that so you said the two acres will be like park area the city so are is the city bringing the city is bringing i I'm pretty sure I've heard this already but I'm asking because you'll know better than I utilities up that road for yeah you had to annex it annexing it into the city right all 43 acres in that area have been annexed into the city they already have yes okay but the utility lines are not are are are right there but we have to build out that just up to them I've I've seen that just being the big issue as it's a cost in development.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

It is it's it's astounding the cost of that well that's good the I mean you're jumping over all those hurdles now we hope to jump over those hurdles okay I yeah I mean I think is there anything else that we haven't touched on that you would like to talk to um we were just at the home and outdoor living show all weekend and we got to talk to a lot of people then and we had so many questions from people about how do I get on the list? I want to be sure that I'm I'm gonna have a place. And we're just not quite there yet. But one way we've told everybody is you if you sign up for our newsletter, you'll be the first to know when we start a list. Well that would be nice but it's not a record yeah so we do have a a website we have um social media we uh have a newsletter that comes out every month or two depending on and then um that that's a way for them to stay current so they just can get on placestoage.org that's where they can donate as well as sign up for our newsletter.

SPEAKER_06 31:03

Awesome I am wondering what happens if this problem doesn't get solved yeah the county is in a world of hurt personally I think the county is so if you talk to Mr.

SPEAKER_03 31:16

Treat you know he thinks this should have been done 30 years ago and he's completely right.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

Sure you know this should have been solved 30 years ago and um if this is not solved now uh this it it will not be good for the community we're gonna lose a lot of vibrant older adults who not only contribute volunteer contributing yes not and also contribute with their pocketbooks because let's face it we do have money we're spending it here we're economic drivers for this community and I think it for people who are in the real estate business there's gonna be some um if you talk about housing um there are people in their homes that will move from their homes to this facility and that will open up some housing in the area in the area.

SPEAKER_06 32:11

Yeah that's that's exactly right um without losing the people that we love and that we want them to stay part of the community which is really key. Yeah I I mean I can't even count how many homes I've had to sell for for people that have to leave. Have to leave yeah yeah and Molly's been part of it you know it's just like you've got to help this person and it's so sad every single time it's heartbreaking. Right. They don't necessarily want to leave area.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

But Andy's right we should have anticipated this I mean I'm the first of the baby boomers to to age out to 80 um and we've known it's been coming since the 40s when it's all the baby boomers started being born.

SPEAKER_04 32:56

I mean I bought a place a townhome in 2015 in Poncha Springs and they were supposed to build an assistive living facility next door to that development at the time and they didn't so I mean I it's a long time coming and I'm we're we're so grateful that you all are at the home and doing this this work. It's so important to the community.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Well thanks for helping us publicize our project because it's uh surprising to me that there are still people in our county who don't know about it. Um so we're trying to get the takes a minute for the word to get out.

SPEAKER_03 33:30

But also this is a community project and so if you know as people understand the issue and the problem and if they want to come assist get this over the hump. Yeah this next year is like a first year to make it happen.

SPEAKER_06 33:44

Yeah you said something a minute ago and I I'm just trying to make sure I understand all the pieces.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

You said the county is really hurting like as a you don't mean the county as the government but just our county as a whole I'm saying our county as a whole would be will be in a world of if you really look if you really look at this issue and this problem as the population it makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

I just want as of the economy and the and the just to clarify about the government though I I want to give kudos to our Chafee County commissioners and our city council in Solida and in Bunavista um Libby Faye is a huge supporter mayor. So we have all kinds of support from the governmental wonderful uh entities and that means a lot to us.

SPEAKER_06 34:35

That's great to say out loud I think it's important for them to hear since their job can be pretty thankless.

SPEAKER_03 34:40

Right. So I'll give you I'll give you an example so we had there's a grant from Brittany Petterson's office. Yeah it's called the uh community facilities along the thing so um and we were we knew the deadline to apply was on a Friday the Monday they sent out the guidelines and the guidelines said new nonprofits can apply it has to be a government governmental so this is Monday we have to have all the paperwork in on Friday. So we do the scramble we get a hold of PT um PT gets a hold of Beth Beth kindly says she'll do this so PT and Beth from the county said we'll submit for you so we gave all our materials to the county the count county uh submitted this grant request for two million for us. Now who knows if we'll get this whether we'll but it was really um with as much as they have going on to be able to help us in that turnaround time really just shows the personal kind of commitment from our from the county commissioners for this project.

SPEAKER_06 36:00

Well I'm sure they're so grateful to all of you for spearheading it and getting like that they see the need.

SPEAKER_03 36:07

Yes yeah the need yeah yeah absolutely anybody and we're also getting great help from city planning um and the city um in terms of you know when we went for um the annexation and the zoning we got a lot of support good yeah you you all have been out there beating the drum like letting everybody know for three years about this and starting to really get get some attention to build momentum. Well I think people are gonna get to the point like when's it done when's it done and I've I'm the same way. When's it gonna be done?

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Yeah yeah so even internally you know we see all the the things that there's still left to do and we're we're still chomping in the big on when's it gonna be done yeah when's it gonna be and you have the to-do list that's oh my gosh well last well a final question that's uh five years from now if you had to tell us what it was going to look like a total success like what's happening five years from now in around yeah tell us your vision it's fun i uh this will be fun it's gonna be fully occupied with all of my friends and family we're gonna have all kinds of activities going on I'm gonna play bridge every week um we're gonna go on walks we're gonna have um young people come in because we really want an intergenerational flavor out there you know we want we want that interaction with the kids because it's so therapeutic for older people to be around younger ones we're gonna have such a great meal and a chef out there that everybody in the community want to kind of come in there and come to lunch.

SPEAKER_06 38:00

Well the hospital is like one of our favorite places for lunch at the hospital because my my husband works he's the the optometrist meeting yeah it's like if we're meeting for lunch it's at the hospital campus.

SPEAKER_01 38:13

Yeah that would be great but I love the vision.

SPEAKER_03 38:18

And we're gonna have happy hour too with wine and beer and you know and and coffee time for all the guys the coffee hour and five days a week I'm gonna teach sharing yoga and we're gonna have a little meditation group okay you know and you know our little exercise group and um yeah so it's wonderful it'll be a nice place to live. So we're hoping that it's uh up running and uh people are happy and healthy.

SPEAKER_06 38:50

Yes yes and not just the people in the facility but the community as a whole is healthier. Yes yeah because we're get to be with people we love and interact and be intergenerational.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

Absolutely you said it well yeah that's wonderful and we've gotten a lot of support from the hospital so um we continue to get support from the hospital um Lydia uh Siegel is on our board and she's part of the hospital board we just met with John Tucker we've got a lot of support from the hospital and Dr. Altnew who is a geriatrician do I have that right yes you do okay geriatrician in town and everybody of our age bracket adores her and so she'll be um at the facility also so we think that we're bringing a lot of good things uh into this facility and we're hoping that it'll be a community uh hub for older people and all the services that are required for older people and then maybe homes for old the older people can be built around and so we can make this a whole huge community center for older people bringing in a lot of the younger people too I love that that is so inspiring thank you so much for visiting with us about all of this we have some rapid fire questions yeah they're good for they're just for fun they're just for fun yeah just so you can know you a little better yeah okay so this one's interesting land with a view or walkable downtown would you rather live in which one you could choose I've already chosen land with a view land with a view okay and then what was the first and it's also walkable by the big on the trail there and it's like a mile and a half from the river.

SPEAKER_01 40:46

It's that um what was the first job you ever had babysitting for 25 cents an hour now they make $25 and then what about you for a venture capitalist?

SPEAKER_06 41:02

Okay so you know all that is fundraising.

SPEAKER_03 41:05

Yeah lucky to have her venture capitalists and um they invested this was in the late 70s okay which was a long time ago now and they would invest in startup companies and they had maybe 12 clients one of them was you know head of Intel I mean like their their clients are all the things right and so if they would invest a little company I would put my little hundred dollars in that and um uh so I think I was 20 and I built out a pretty good portfolio at 20.

SPEAKER_04 41:41

What would you be doing? And I think I've got to know the answer to this but I'm curious if money was no object.

SPEAKER_01 41:47

Oh wow party on oh sorry money was no object I would travel some more I'm really into the traveling thing right now so I would just go first class nice natural trip tell us one place the the the like the first place that pops into your head I'm so curious oh where are you gonna go a another Camino walk okay which is not first it's first class to get there on the plane but then it's walking a lot and I'd stay in a deluxe hotel.

SPEAKER_03 42:23

Perfect look about you um I would get this done and funded I would be you know like I thought you might say that again you just get this done and funded would get the architect all the architecture done I'm meeting with the architects tomorrow uh evening um they're having an open house and I'm going down but you know all of this would be funded we wouldn't have to be doing the scramble for the capital stack get just get it done and happy and then I'd go off to to France and I actually think I'd go to Buddhist monastery for about a year and just meditate in France with Dharma talks in French.

SPEAKER_04 43:00

Just so you know I've thought about this another after we get this project done yeah well you might need it before it's right there you go what what is your personal motto or mantra or one of them love one another that's true Andy Life is to be lived or any book that you are reading right now.

SPEAKER_03 43:45

Oh Andy I've been finishing a book on the Blood part and it's really fascinating. So MIT has it's called open courseware and you can look at any of their courses and get the syllabus and And so I went, I I can't believe it in my teeth they teach French history, but they do. So I went to the French history and they uh um there's a books on uh Louis the Fourteenth and absolutism all the way through Bonaparte, and I'm just finishing the series on Bonaparte. So fun.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Oh my goodness. Well, I'm not that serious. I love reading novels, and uh one of my favorite authors is Anna Quindlin, another one is Elizabeth Byrd, another one is John Grisham. That's my perfect reading. And enjoy and not think too much.

SPEAKER_04 44:42

All right, so the last one is what does home mean to you? Community. Yeah, that's it for me.

SPEAKER_02 44:59

Um home to me is a place where it feels really comfortable and I, you know, we can be ourselves and enjoy each other, and there's a lot of happiness and a lot of joy.

SPEAKER_06 45:08

Love those answers. Those are great answers. We're so grateful that you guys joined us today. It was really fun. Thanks for asking. I hope the word gets to everyone, right?

SPEAKER_01 45:20

Yeah, and if you know anybody with a few million would like to contribute.

SPEAKER_06 45:25

Got it. Yeah, I have multiple community projects in my head that we need a few million. Yeah, but this one is really important, and we will let's remember it's just money.

SPEAKER_03 45:37

Yeah, yeah, you know, and it's it's the the energy that goes into something, and money is just one vehicle to get things done, and you know, it's a great yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:50

Well, thank you both. We we really appreciate your time and and and your your devotion to the community on this issue. Thank you. Thank you. This episode of Real Estate in the Rockies is brought to you by Collegiate Peace, Law and Mediation. Hi, I'm Ashley Campbell. I help people make smart, informed decisions when it comes to real estate, especially when things get complex. From contracts to land issues, I'm here to bring clarity and confidence to the legal side of your transaction. I offer legal services and mediation.