PORT TOWNSEND – Kah Tai Care Center, Port Townsend’s oldest care and rehabilitation facility, is receiving a major face lift, which will move from outside to inside this spring.
Exterior work on the center, established in 1948, has been under way since last year.
The center is getting new siding, windows and an automatic-opening front door, the addition of a portico at the facility’s main driveway entrance, new sidewalks and a newly paved driveway, said Angela Cerna, executive director.
Once the remodeling project is completed inside and out this year — perhaps by the summer — a grand reopening is planned.
Then, the facility is expected to be renamed Life Care Center of Port Townsend. The name will reflect the company’s corporate owner since 2003, Life Care Centers of America.
Kah Tai, with 90 employees providing 24-hour care to up to 75 residents, is the city’s third largest employer.
The facility at 751 Kearney St., is one of 18 Life Care facilities in Washington state.
The center just received all new electric beds, furniture and flat-screen TVs in preparation for the interior remodeling of residents’ rooms that will include new flooring and painting.
“A new generator system is going to be put in for if we lose power, which is going to be huge for this community,” Cerna said, explaining that the building as backup power now for lights only.
“The generator will power the entire building.”
Cerna is a Chimacum High School graduate who has lived in Jefferson County most of her life. She has worked at Kah Tai for nine years and is the former business office manager.
“Many of the people who come here are local,” she said, adding that many are recovering from injuries and have moved from the hospital to the center for care and rehabilitation.
Life Care Centers of America is based in Cleveland, Tenn., and operates more than 220 skilled, subacute and Alzheimer’s centers in 28 states.
For more information about Life Care Centers, see www.lcca.com.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
