COLUMBIA, S.C. — If you've driven down Harden Street in Columbia, you may have noticed the construction on the side of the Department of Mental Health's Nursing Care Center. Over to the right, construction workers are renovating the Fewell Pavilion building.
You'll certainly see fencing, heavy machinery and workers with construction hats.
Just past the Drew Wellness Center, construction is in the works at a nursing home facility operated in Columbia for veterans, run by the SC Department of Mental Health.
Mark Binkley is the executive project manager for the agency.
"When the funding became available through the VA for renovations related to the pandemic, to existing state veterans nursing homes, the department applied for funding to renovate Fewell to make it suitable to have patients who need quarantine or patients who needed isolation," Binkley said.
The building hasn't been used since 2009 because the recession limited state funding, and there were lots of repair issues.
But now it'll house 45 rooms, office and storage space, with easy access to the Stone Pavillion resources next door, like the cafeteria, medical personnel and IT help.
This construction, that started Spring 2022 will also allow for building upon a state wide effort, to provide stable power resources.
"So one of the other things we're pursuing with all of our existing nursing homes is increasing our backup generator capacity to be able to withstand some of these severe weather events that might knock out power for multiple days," Binkley said.
Also, it turns out South Carolina is one of few states who applied specifically for this funding, so the federal money was provided for up to 100% of the $14M grant.
All this brand new space will be put to great use.
According to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, this facility is expected to be finished by May of this year.