The City of Bayard recognized a need in the community for a facility to provide extended quality care for the community’s aging members.  The City of Bayard contracted with Rice Construction, a local contracting company who continues to serve the local community to this day.  Rice Construction began working on building a 47 bed nursing facility in 1972 and the $250,000 project was completed and opened for business on July 1, 1973.  The facility was named Chimney Rock Villa and the city-owned facility welcomed the community members with an open house on Sunday, August 5, 1973.

 

The first administrator was Mrs. Virginia Darnall, who had over 16 years of experience in leading her own privately-owned nursing home.  Mrs. Elsie Shaffer was hired to be the first Director of Nursing.

 

In the 1990’s, additions were made to meet the increasing needs of the community and western Nebraska.  Chimney Rock Villa was well-known throughout the panhandle for the quality of care and people from all over western Nebraska would bring their loved ones to Chimney Rock Villa.  To meet this growing need, construction was done to build additional rooms, bringing the total bed count to 57.  During this time, additions were also made to the dining room and additional administrative offices and resident community space were added as well.

 

In 2001, Chimney Rock Villa recognized the need for care of individuals who were no longer safe to live at home but not in need of full nursing home care.  After applying for grants and additional funding, Chimney Rock Villa started construction to add Assisted Living units to meet the needs of these individuals. During the renovation, Chimney Rock Villa de-certified 8 nursing home beds to accommodate the addition of 8 assisted living units.  The Assisted Living project included renovating existing nursing home space as well as additional new construction.  When completed in 2002, the project added 8 assisted living units, a private assisted living dining room and an assisted living commons area.

 

Currently, Chimney Rock Villa has 8 Assisted Living units (7 private and 1 semi-private) and 49 nursing home rooms (4 private and 23 semi-privates).  Chimney Rock Villa is proud to continue to provide quality care to the Bayard community and all of western Nebraska.