CRIPPLE CREEK • A recently shuttered nursing home has been approved as the new headquarters for Southwest Teller County Emergency Medical Services.

A $1.5 million project, the repurpose of the building from the Cripple Creek Care Center is a solution for a growing agency with 13 full-time employees.

The building and the EMS division are part of the Teller County Health Services District, a special taxing district.

Last year, the district board voted to close the residential care center, which had been serving the region’s elderly and disabled for 47 years and had even earned a 5-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

However, for the past two years, the center could not attract additional staff, licensed nurses and certified nursing assistants to properly care for its 33 residents. In the months before the center closed, staff was sparse and the director, Lawrence Cowan, worked double shifts as nurse and administrator.

Despite the work of a task force, board members and community stakeholders seeking alternatives to the closure, lack of staff and inability to serve additional clients doomed the care center as a viable resource. It closed June 15, after Cowan found alternative homes for the residents.

At the time, the facility was one of more than 300 nursing homes across the nation that closed due to staff shortages as well as mandates related to COVID, said Cowan, speaking weeks before the closure. Cowan cited statistics he received from the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment.

“I am beyond excited for this building to be repurposed for EMS and other community resources/needs,” Cowan said.

In the meantime, the emergency services division was outgrowing its current quarters within the city’s fire department on Bennett Avenue.

That left the building which the district owns outright. “We did put the building on the market,” said Eric Murray, director of the district’s EMS services.

Two potential buyers looked at the building for employee housing. “But we didn’t have showers in every room; there are only three showers in the entire building,” Murray said.

The board unanimously approved the repurposing of the building in October and requests for proposals on the remodel went out this week.

With the remodel, each fulltime employee will have their own bedroom, compared to the six beds they currently share at the fire Department, Murray said

With the expansion, Murray intends to hire two full-time paramedics, with the opportunity for a third paramedic currently on staff as an emergency medical technician. “The move enables EMS to be more efficient, the fire department will have a chance to grow, with plans in the works to remove a wall and expand the space,” Murray said.

As well, the now-ems building at 700 N. A St. is a designated Red Cross Shelter.

In the works is adding a paramedic next year from the Community Paramedic Program, a division of Ute Pass Regional Health Services District based in Woodland Park. The program, under the direction of James Mclaughlin, offers the MAPS — Mental Health Assessment Program — as a resource for people suffering a mental health crisis.

“We offer courtesy rides to residents suffering a crisis to the sheriff’s department to be met by a community paramedic,” Murray said.

Murray credits the late Jim Vance, former chairman of the district board, for the idea.

Vance, who led public meetings before the closure, moved with his wife Brenda to Cañon City in the fall. Vance died within a few weeks. “Really, it was Jim’s vision to use the care center building for EMS,” Murray said. “Jim did so much for this district.”

Current district board members are: David Schoenberger, chairman; Pat Martin, vice chairman; Jo Ann Kincaid, secretary; Tammy Bruntz, treasurer’ and members Jeff Rucker, Lawrence Cowan and Shanon Conley.