Frasier retirees had a night to remember

Flooding spurs new wave of construction at senior community

BOULDER – The rain began the night of Sept. 9, 2013, and by the time the storm cleared a week later, 88 elderly residents and patients had been displaced from retirement community Frasier Meadows in Boulder.

The flooding that battered Boulder a year ago still is fresh on the minds of Frasier Meadows employees and residents. “What was so unusual about these rains is they didn’t stop,” said Kathy Pollicita, vice president of Mission Advancement for Frasier Meadows.

The Sept. 9-16 storm produced 17.15 inches of rain, with 9.08 inches alone falling during the 24-hour period from the night of Sept. 11 through the night of Sept. 12, setting a record for rainfall in a single day in Boulder. The deluge drenched the Front Range, with businesses in the floodplain such as Frasier Meadows among the hardest hit. A year later, Frasier is in the middle of a $16 million project, built by Pinkard Construction and designed by OZ Architects, to build 38 new apartments.

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Last September, sections of the roof began caving in and ceiling tiles fell as the rains continued. By Wednesday evening, Sept. 11, Frasier chief executive Tim Johnson decided that employees should find other housing for residents.

It was a good thing they started when they did. Late that night, floodwaters began pouring through the halls of the skilled nursing building. That’s when Frasier employees began a frantic effort to move patients to other facilities throughout the Denver area.

Staff members placed patients in wheelchairs and even, in some cases, carried them out.

“The water was rushing through the building at that point,” Pollicita said. “That was when it was scary.”

At the same time, Frasier Meadows’ independent-living building was flooding. Amazingly, residents stayed calm.

Wil Bernthal, a retired business professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, recalled wading through swift water with staff members as they moved Bernthal and his wife, Lorna, from their independent-living apartment to a dry space on the second floor in another complex. Wil and Lorna had help from staff members, but he said it was still “a bit tricky.”

“It was raining and dark,” said Bernthal, 94. “The floodwaters were between ankle and knee deep. We had really good help from the staff, and so we weren’t in any danger. It was kind of exciting.”

By that time, water had filled a parking garage, damaging several vehicles and setting off alarms. Within a few days, Wil, Lorna and 15 other residents had moved to Golden West, another retirement community nearby that had minor flood damage.

John Torres, CEO of the nonprofit Golden West, said Johnson called him asking for help. Shortly afterward, Golden West got permission from the state Department of Public Health and Environment and the 17 Frasier residents began moving in.

Golden West staff members, who meanwhile had flood-related emergencies of their own, worked with the Frasier staff members to move residents within a week into Golden West apartments.

“We really started to work very quickly and very closely to make the transition,” said Torres, who, along with other Golden West employees, had to stay overnight at work because he could not return to his own home.

Frasier established an office at Golden West, which integrated the new residents into its cafeteria and living spaces. Wil and Lorna spent nearly eight months there before moving back to a temporary apartment at Frasier. They lost a couch and a few other items in the flood but, thanks to Frasier employees and family members in Boulder, most of their belongings were saved and stored.

Bernthal said he is excited to move into the new apartment by the end of the year. “They’re under construction right now,” he said. “We can hear them from our window as they’re pounding away down below.”

Half of the new apartments being built on Frasier’s 14-acre campus will be part of its new “memory care” program for residents with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. The other half will be assisted-living apartments. Frasier is demolishing its old assisted-living building, which was damaged by flooding.

“The need for memory care is growing within the Boulder County community,” Pollicita said. “The flood gave Frasier an opportunity to add a new program to serve the needs of people who are experiencing mild to moderate cognitive impairment by adding our memory-care assisted living apartments.”

Frasier also lost 54 of 108 total beds in its skilled nursing facility to the flood, although it won’t rebuild that half of the facility because of changes in health-care reimbursements.

Mayor Matt Appelbaum, who lives near Frasier, recalled the devastation at Frasier as well as how other Boulder residents suffered.

The flood “really disrupted people’s lives,” he said. “The community helped out enormously, but we’re still working.”

Steve Lynn can be reached at 970-232-3147, 303-630-1968 or slynn@bizwestmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @SteveLynnBW.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Frasier Meadows lost its skilled nursing facility to flooding. Frasier Meadows lost 54 of 108 total beds in the facility.