Friday afternoon was a celebration for the Department of Aging and Long Term Care Program of the Wolf River CBRF, a community based residential facility.

“The groundbreaking is for additional office space for our long term care program,” said Susan Waukau, the Director of Aging and Long Term Care. “It’s been 22 years since we’ve done any type of construction in this area.”

Although the expansion plans are for additional space, Waukau assures the expansion will allow the facility to offer more programs to those who need it.

“We are the tribal operated waiver program at this point, and we would like to build our capacity to be able to serve our elders,” Waukau explained. “With the office space comes more programs and we’re able to help more of the elders in our community.”

Currently the current facility CBRF has a tribal dementia care specialist, an adult disability resource specialist, an elder abuse coordinator, among other positions.

To pay for the expansion, Waukau says the facility received $250,000 in grant funds from the Shakopee Tribe and an additional $366,000 from the Menominee Indian Tribe.

The expansion is expected to be completed by the fall of 2017.