RELATED
For residents who’ve lived their entire lives in Junee, retirement can mean a heartbreaking move away from home.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Back on Australia Day, 2014, Adrian Eisenhauer expressed a wish for this to change, which since spiraled into a huge community project.
“Sometimes you open your mouth and find you get caught up in things,” Mr Eisenhauer laughed.
His vision for a retirement village to allow elderly residents to live self-sufficiently in Junee and boost businesses in town is now taking shape after years of planning.
“As people get older they’re more inclined to shop locally, it seemed like a good opportunity for our senior folk, which I’m a part of, and a good opportunity for the town,” he said.
Since purchasing the land in 2016, the group have secured Richie Pottie of Ladex Construction Group as their developer. Early plans of the village will be presented to the community next week.
“At this point in time it’s a 52 lot retirement village, self care, ranging from two to three bedrooms,” committee member Michael Commins said.
“You hear the horror stories of people are paying $400,000 to get in to homes, then $100 a week on top for maintenance, and then when you leave you lose up to a third of the purchase price to get in.
“With this development you’ll own the land. It’s a community driven initiative, no one is profiting from it.”
Mr Eisenhauer said they want each unit to really become a home, and so will seek feedback at the meeting on how units could be modified for potential future residents.
“We want to have some input as to what they feel would be the best sort of environment, in the design of the houses and the facility,” he said.
“Even though each unit may feel similar, each place can have something different about it.”
The block is centrally located less and a kilometre to the medical centre and down town. The committee are hoping for about 10 people to invest in the project to get the ball rolling.
“This has been a long time coming, some of our people have already left Junee- if we can provide a way for them to stay in the township rather than heading off to Wagga and Canberra, it’s good for them and good for the Junee economy,” Mr Commins said.
It’s an investment Mr Eisenhauer hopes to make himself in the not too distant future.
“I’ve always been local, my wife and I have been in and out for around 47 years and we’re certainly not wanting to move away,” he said.
A community meeting will be held next Wednesday, November 22 from 6pm at the Junee Ex Services Club.