Cochrane’s only affordable seniors housing facility, Big Hill Lodge, is at the brink of an exciting new chapter.
A recent gift of $777,000 from the estate of the late, lifetime Cochranite Jean Grant will kick-start plans for a new facility – bigger rooms and more amenities to provide safe and affordable housing for Cochrane’s aging population.
“She loved what we stood for and what we did,” said Big Hill Lodge manager Sandra Robin, adding that her team was “extremely grateful and humbled” upon learning that Grant – who was never a resident herself at the lodge – had chosen Big Hill Lodge as a beneficiary.
“This is definitely a tipping point for us … we’re excited but moving forward cautiously.”
Robin said the facility at 98 Carolina Drive is now 40 years old and is “getting tired,” with increasing maintenance costs.
The existing 74 rooms also fall below the minimum provincial standard of 350 square feet for lodge resident rooms, with accessibility challenges posed by the five-foot-by-six-foot resident bathrooms.
“A gift of the magnitude that Jean Grant gave to our organization will enable us to ensure the new lodge has all the features our residents desire – and potentially reduce financing costs, thereby reducing rent,” explained Carol Borschneck, chief administrative officer for the Rocky View Foundation.
The Rocky View Foundation manages affordable seniors housing in Cochrane and surrounding Rocky View County areas. Rents are income based up to a maximum of $1,680/month and subsidized by the province.
Borschneck said Cochranites who want to set the new Big Hill Lodge project wheels in motion should lobby the province for an Affordable Supportive Living Initiative grant.
“We are currently working on affordable independent housing in Bragg Creek,” explained Borschneck – with reference to the recent demolition of the landmark Steak Pit restaurant to make way for a 20-unit mixed housing complex.
“I would like construction to begin in Bragg Creek in spring 2018, then in Cochrane in 2019.”
Borschneck said the foundation has identified two possible sites for a new facility, but would not elaborate.
Robin emphasized now is the time for potential community partners to talk opportunities.
“It’s a huge legacy for whomever steps in to help us,” said Robin.
“We need to ensure these seniors have a safe place to live.”
Who was Jean Grant?
“She was very nice … a very quiet lady,” said Leona Toner, head chef at Big Hill Lodge for the last 30 years.
Toner, who herself grew up in a house across the street from the lodge and joked that “she doesn’t travel far from home” said she remembers Grant attending get-togethers and teas at the facility.
According to her obituary, Jean Roberta Grant “passed away peacefully at Chinook Care Hospice in Calgary on Oct. 3, 2015 at 90 years of age.”
The More Big Hill Country book - Cochrane’s history book from 1945-1980 – states Grant, nee White, was the sole child to Scotty and Freda White, who relocated to Cochrane from Indus in 1929.
A student at Weedon School, Grant moved to Vancouver following high school graduation to work as a cook. She returned home to her parents’ farm in Cochrane to help care for her ill father.
In 1954, she married soldier-turned-farmer Harold Grant. His sudden passing in 1962 left Jean a widow at a young age, although she spent many years with her late partner Donald Douglas Smith.
She never had children and never remarried, eventually leaving the farm life behind to reside in Cochrane.
Her obituary requested donations to Big Hill Lodge in lieu of flowers.
