By BRETT PHILLIPS
Niles Daily Star

The ribbon cutting ceremony Sunday at Woodland Terrace in Longmeadow subdivision marked the culmination of a project that took three and a half years to finalize.

Don and Mary Dockerty built their first assisted living facility for the elderly in Bridgman in 1997, which now has more than 100 residents. After originally planning to finish their second facility at 13 Longmeadow Village Drive in Niles in the fall of 2008, the grand opening finally came Sunday.

Don and Mary’s sons, Todd and Tim Dockerty, are now major parts of the Woodland Terrace staff as well. Todd, head of operations for the facility, expressed his family’s enthusiasm for opening a different kind of elderly living facility than Niles is accustomed to.

“It’s one of the things we’re excited about in Niles because there aren’t any other assisted living facilities for special needs,” said Dockerty about the new building. Dockerty went on to describe Woodland Terrace as having “a range from assisted living to special units” because of the entire wing for people with dementia.

Mary Dockerty expanded on her son‚s view of Niles‚ need for such an establishment.
“We felt there was a need in Niles for this type of assisted living facility,” she said.

Timothy Batton, executive director of Woodland Terrace, described the characteristics that set this building apart from similar facilities in the area.

“Fifty percent of the building is devoted to memory loss and dementia patients,” he said.
Aside from assisting the elderly citizens of Niles, Woodland Terrace is also helping to decrease the city’s unemployment rate. While there are currently 25 full and part-time staff members at the facility, Mary Dockerty explained that the number of staff members “will increase as the number of residents increases.”

While there were 16 residents of the facility at its grand opening, that number is already about to increase, and will hopefully lead to a greater number of jobs for the citizens of Niles.

For the time being, the Dockerty family is enthused and relieved about their new building in Longmeadow.  As to whether or not the family is planning on expanding their franchise further, Mary Dockerty simply said, “The option isn’t ruled out.”