KICKOFF FOR AFFORDABLE SENIOR HOUSING COMPLEX ‘GREATEST MOMENT’ IN BARRETT’S LIFE
Rona Barrett, center, flanked by 3rd District Supervisor Doreen Farr and Congresswoman Lois Capps, turns the ceremonial shovel of dirt during groundbreaking for the Golden Inn and Village project in Santa Ynez Friday.
April 24, 2015 2:55 pm • Harold Pierce [email protected]
Donning oversized sunglasses and a hardhat, Rona Barrett gave a flick of a golden shovel and turned over a mound of dirt, kicking off the official groundbreaking for Golden Inn & Village, a long-anticipated affordable senior housing complex.
The years–long effort that Barrett, a pioneering entertainment reporter envisioned after a decade of caring for her ailing father, became a reality Friday at the site of the campus.
“I never thought this would really happen, but it did. I’ve had this dream for many, many years … this is the greatest moment that I think I’ve ever had,” Barrett told a crowd of community members, housing authority representatives and politicians including 3rd District Supervisor Doreen Farr and Rep. Lois Capps. “It is so unreal to believe that this land upon which we are all sitting and standing will become the home of the Golden Inn & Village.”
Barrett said there were moments along the way when she wasn’t sure whether the project would happen, but through it all, her husband reassured her it would.
“For the last several years when I come home late at night, he’d say ‘It’ll happen, it’ll happen. Just have patience,’ and for a moment he sounded just like my dad because that’s what my dad told me all along,” Barrett continued. “He said, ‘Rona, learn something that you love and learn it better than anyone else and when you do, you will be successful. But he failed to tell me how long it would really take.”
Plans for the seven-acre property include an assisted living and memory care facility, an independent living senior apartment complex, a senior community center, and low-income employee and family apartments.
The groundbreaking comes after years of fundraising. The Rona Barrett Foundation received large donations from local foundations, but also smaller nickel and dime donations from area residents, Barrett said.
“Some people have a funny sense of humor because we have something on our blog … about independent thinkers, so somebody sent us a wonderful little check for $18,” Barrett said in February.
The sentiment reflects her father’s nature.
Barrett would watch her father, who wasn’t rich, write checks to charities even if it was only for $10, she told the Santa Ynez Valley News last year.
When Barrett approached politicians about the project, Farr told her it would “take passion” because of the years of opposition developers received from the community when trying to construct anything on the corner lot at Highway 246 and Refugio Road.
“Most of us have been driving by this site for years and it was always just an empty lot,” Capps said. “It takes more than just a village — it takes a visionary, plus a lot of angels. The visionary had a dream, and today your Pops is smiling down at you, Rona.”
www.santamariatimes.com/news/local/after-years-of-work-ground-is-broken-for-golden-inn/article_82982c74-f738-5b6c-9e61-5a1034020fff.html
