JULY 29, 2010 ISSUE
Hospitality House Construction Moves Forward
Completion of Homeless Shelter Scheduled for End of Year
With the drainage system installed, foundation poured and the wall construction underway, Hospitality House staff is hoping construction on its new 18,500-square-foot facility, located at 338 Brook Hollow Road in Boone, will be completed by Christmas. Photos submitted
After this past winter’s plentiful snow and ice robbed the construction schedule of three crucial months, work on the new Hospitality House of the Boone Area is moving along briskly. Jillian Kuykendall, director of development, reports that the walls of the 18,500-square-foot building are now about two-thirds complete.
As the only homeless shelter for a seven-county region, Hospitality House of the Boone Area serves Ashe, Avery, Alleghany, Mitchell, Wilkes Watauga and Yancey counties.
The groundbreaking for the new facility took place in September 2009. While Wishon & Carter Builders work on constructing the new facility at 338 Brook Hollow Road in Boone, Hospitality House is operating out of three old homes in Boone.
With the drainage system installed, foundation poured and the wall construction underway, Kuykendall said the new facility could be completed by the end of the year. “We’re hoping the timeline leads to completion by Christmas,” she said. “We, like everyone else, were delayed during the heavy snows. We had done grading on the property during early winter, but then the snow came and we had to wait for the soil to dry out—we basically had to wait three months.”
Since spring, however, crews working for Yadkin’s Wishon & Carter have worked every weekday on the structure, said Kuykendall. She added that the block mason should complete the walls by the end of this week and then work will begin on the roof, with inside finish work reserved for the end of construction when weather will hamper outdoor work.
“Building this shelter would not be possible without the generosity of the local community,” reminded Kuykendall, who said Hospitality House currently sits at 94 percent of its $3 million goal to pay for the shelter. “We have just under $200,000 left to raise.”
Kuykendall hopes even more community members will step forward to donate to this worthy cause and needed facility. To donate, click to www.hospitalityhouseofboone.org, or send a check to: P.O. Box 309, Boone, NC 28607. For other ways to donate, call Kuykendall at 828-262-3461.
When completed, the new facility will feature 62 beds segregated into male and female areas. Both men and women will be located on the same floor and will share common spaces for relaxing and eating, but both men and women will have their own shower and sleeping facilities. Everyone will have more space than ever before, said Kuykendall.
“We’ll be able to serve more people than ever in the new facility; unfortunately, there is a huge need for this shelter in this area,” said Kuykendall. “With the new shelter, we can serve people in better ways than ever before. We will have more space to offer new services, such as job search workshops, housing workshops—workshops that will help people lead better lives. Space will not be an issue in the new shelter.”
For more information, click to www.hospitalityhouseofboone.org.
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