Ripon celebrated the groundbreaking of a building on Friday.

It wasn’t just another building, though, as Ripon Mayor Mike Restuccia pointed out.

Restuccia, who enjoyed a successful career in finance, told the gathering on the dirt parcel on the corner of Main Street and Vera Avenue in Ripon, that “this is a different building.”

The mayor said it wasn’t inspired by profit.

“This building brings value to Ripon,” Restuccia said.

It wasn’t hyperbole offered by an elected official.

It was an observation built over 60 years on the foundation laid when the first Bethany Homes facility opened.

The value Restuccia referenced is the vision of loving care that the Rev. John De Jong, Andrew Douma and others sought to provide the community’s aging.

They were driven by a desire to provide for seniors who had raised families and had helped weave Ripon’s community fabric to  be able to receive needed care and housing without having to move to Stockton, Modesto, and beyond.

The groundbreaking of the Terraces at Bethany on Friday is the logical progression of that act of faith  that led to the opening of the original Bethany Home 74-bed convalescent hospital in 1963.

“This is Bethany’s first aging in place (facility),” noted Bethany Home Executive Director Cindy Scheunlein.
As such, it will be licensed to allow residents who may have to transfer from an independent lifestyle to one with a degree of assistance to not be uprooted from their homes at Bethany.

“It is truly a blessed day for Bethany Home and the City of Ripon,” Scheunlein offered.

It is fitting the three-story, 104,700-square-foot building is going up near the heart of Ripon on the western edge of downtown given Bethany Homes has embodied cherished community values with its Christian-based endeavors for the past six decades.

“Christ is our cornerstone,” Bethany Chaplain Glen Shirk shared with the gathering of nearly 100 people.

There is already an interest list several hundred strong for the 82-unit retirement community.

Of those, 75 percent are local.

There are 82 units planned to serve those 62 years of age and up ranging from 475 to 1,250 square-foot floor plans as studios, one bedroom, and two bedroom apartments.

The modern apartment units with high-end finishes will be complemented with an array of amenities including a formal dining room, café and bistro, library, fitness center, media  room, craft room, large meeting and event hall, and landscaped gardens and courtyards that are part of 24,800 square feet of common area on the first floor.

Terraces at Bethany will be within easy walking distance of Ripon’s small town-style Main Street with a variety of dining opportunities, stores, medical services, and amenities such as the public library.

“May the blessings of the Terraces at Bethany be obvious to all,” Bethany Home Society of San Joaquin County Board Jeff Miller said after describing how Bethany had reached the point of offering an aging in place facility in a  journey that started 60 years ago.

Bethany Home was established by Ripon area churches and community leaders to offer  “a Christian home for the aged and those needing particular nursing and rest care due to infirmity or caused by illness.

Today there are more than 400 residents living  at Bethany.

It includes:

*The Manor with 55 apartments in one complex. Each unit has about 525 square feet with common areas such as an arts and crafts room, dining room, laundry, laundry facilities, fireside room, and exercise room.

*The Garden Apartments with seven buildings that contain 14 one-bedroom units and 25 two-bedroom units varying from 520 to 920 square feet.

*The Sunset Apartments with eight buildings. There are 10 apartments with a bedroom, bathroom, and garage plus another 26 with two bedrooms a bath and a half, and a garage. The units vary in size from 1,000 to 1,100 square feet.

*The Town Square Apartments featuring a seven acre campus with 49 cottage units and 30 apartment style units. There is a fitness center, exercise stations, gardening spaces and covered patio area. All units have two bedrooms with one or one and a half bathrooms. Square footage range from 1,008 to 1,114 square feet.

*There is also a 43-bed residential care facility for the elderly.

For more information on the Terraces at Bethany Homes or other Bethany living options go to bethanyripon.org.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com