Facilities fill need in community
Leisure Gardens and Leisure Village, both located in Presque Isle, provide a home-away-from-home atmosphere for residents, with welcoming living quarters and friendly staff.
“These facilities give residents a ‘community within a community’ environment. I’m happy I can do something to make people’s lives a little better,” said Albert Cyr, owner, who was born in Hamlin, lived in Van Buren, then moved to the Caribou-Presque Isle area to be closer to his business.
Cyr got into the nursing home business in May 1973, after many years farming in the St. John Valley. What seemed like a radical change from farming was just another step in his understanding of diversification.
“Caribou did not have a nursing home, and the community was eager to have somebody take care of that need. I found a piece of land and mortgaged my farms and borrowed some money and built a 60-bed nursing home,” he said.
Three years later the facility expanded from 60 to 110 beds.
Cyr credits his father for teaching him the business skills necessary to run the first facility and those that have followed. Seeing a need for nursing care in the County in 1976, Cyr purchased Aroostook Convalescent, now called the Presque Isle Nursing Home.
Cyr speaks with pride and satisfaction about his family’s involvement in the nursing care field.
“At one time or another all six children have been part of the family business, but today four of the children and one grandson are working in the business,” said Cyr, who’s passing the legacy on to his family and those the business serves.
In 1986, he expanded the Presque Isle facility to assisted living, with the building of Leisure Gardens, a 122-unit facility.
“Assisted living is going to be the nursing home of the future. The residents retain their independence and their privacy. It’s an apartment not an institution, but if you need care, we have a system of communications. You pay for that care on a fee-for-service basis,” explained Cyr.
Cyr’s many philosophies of life all trickle down to his favorite quote, those famous words of President John F. Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”
For more information, call 764-7322.
