STRONG – Residents and staff at the Strong Nursing Home will move to a former Livermore Falls nursing home as soon as possible.

The Franklin County nursing home, an intermediate care facility for the mentally handicapped with complicated medical needs, will change its name to the Harris House in honor of late-resident Kerry Harris, administrator Paula Varney said Monday. Harris had lived at the center for nearly 30 years before he died recently, she said.

A purchase-and-sales agreement for the former ParkView Nursing and Rehabilitation Services center, which became an assisted living center that closed in September, was signed Dec. 29 and was received at the Strong home on Jan. 3, Varney said.

Armand and Katy Madore of Rangeley and Mexico, owners of Net Development Corp., had bought the former 60-bed Livermore Falls nursing home after it closed several years ago with the intent to put in children’s services. But after state money dried up, they renovated one wing of the building and turned the rooms into efficiency units, most having half-baths and some having kitchenettes, for an assisted living center, Katy Madore said Monday.

“We just did not have the market,” Madore said, and they closed in September.

The Strong Nursing Home serves 12 people and has 55 to 60 employees, Varney said.

The Strong business is owned by Caring Families Inc. and is managed by North Country Associates, Varney said.

The state has issued the home an emergency certificate of need to allow them to move into the building with the group leasing the building in Livermore Falls until the sale goes through, Varney said.

Most of the employees plan to travel to the new quarters, located at 45 Fiorica Drive, off Pomeroy Hill Road, which is located off Route 17.

“Maintaining the staff is critical to the life expectancy of the people who live here,” Varney said.

For now, the staff and residents at the Harris House will use only half the building, which Varney said is triple the size of the space it currently has.

They plan to work with the state to see what else they can offer at the center, she said.

On Monday, staff were to have a planning meeting with maintenance people to see how long it will take to get the place ready to move in. Varney said some things need to be done, including installing a hot water storage tank, and having an inspector from the Maine Office of the Fire Marshal and Maine Department of Health and Human Services clear it for occupancy.

After they move in, they’ll go through a more detailed certificate-of-need process and arrange financing to buy the place, she said.

The layout of the building is conducive and state-of-the-art, Varney said.

Some of the features are an outside tar walkway that connects to a central location and emergency exits, which is good for wheelchair use and the design of the building has four rooms in a pod with a central living space.

“It’s a very nice design,” she said. “Lots of windows, lots of sun, lots of natural light.”

Employees are very excited for the residents, she said. “It’s really going to meet their needs,” Varney said.

It’s good news for the town to have businesses moving in, Livermore Falls selectmen’s Chairman Julie Deschesne said Monday.

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