Tranquility to offer new option for assisted living

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Joyce Chibuye, nurse for the new facility, puts dishes away at the new assisted living facility Thursday. Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen
Tranquility of Dalton Executive Director Teresa Carter and owner Chris Shiflett decorate the library inside the new assisted living facility Thursday. Matt Hamilton/The Daily Citizen

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March 11, 2013

Tranquility to offer new option for assisted living

Charles Oliver charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Mon Mar 11, 2013, 06:04 AM EDT

Chris Shiflett says many assisted living facilities make it difficult to figure out exactly what they charge.

“They have a base rate. But then they have all these different levels of care and different levels of price,” Shiflett said. “They’ll do these periodic assessments and they determine the level you are. You might start off as a level two and paying, say, $3,200 a month. But in a few months, they’ll do an assessment and say you are at a level five now, and it’s $4,200 a month.”

Shiflett says that won’t happen at Tranquility of Dalton, an assisted living facility he is opening on Orchard Way about two miles north of Dalton.

“There are no levels here. It’s $3,200 for a standard-size room, and the larger rooms, if occupied by an individual, can go up to $3,600. That’s a flat fee,” he said. “You get a room with a window view. We provide a large-screen TV with cable. We provide three professionally prepared meals plus two snacks throughout the day. We schedule trips and activities. We have a full-time activities director. We have a laundry service. We do medication oversight, make sure they get their medications.”

Tranquillity Executive Director Teresa Carter says Tranquility provides all the services that the state deems appropriate for an assisted living facility.

“If someone needs help getting dressed or needs help with their bath, that’s included. We don’t charge more for that,” she said.

Carter, who has 16 years experience in the assisted living industry, says Tranquility is fortunate to have a local owner.

“He lives in this community and is active in this community. He’s here to see that the residents and the staff have what they need. We don’t have to go to any regional managers,” she said.

Shiflett has been involved in the banking business in Dalton since 1994, but he says he started thinking about assisted living a few years ago.

“My parents are in their early 80s. They are still living by themselves, but that horizon is approaching, so I started looking around,” he said.

Shiflett says he discovered that Whitfield County and the counties around it are “underserved” when it comes to assisted living facilities.

“There wasn’t anything like this on the north end of the county,” he said.

So Shiflett began building Tranquility, a 21,000-square-foot, 34-bedroom assisted living facility. Twenty-six of those rooms are single occupancy; eight are designed for double occupancy.

The facility sits on 7.5 acres of land and the building surrounds and encloses a 9,000-square-foot patio.

“It’s all locally owned. We want to provide a place for the people who built this community to live and to remain close to their children who are still living here and working here,” Shiflett said.

Shiflett plans to have Tranquility open within the next few weeks.

“We expect to have our certificate of occupancy on the building next week. At that point, there’s some paperwork we have to send off to the state. We hope to be able to accept residents in the next three to four weeks,” Shiflett said. “Right now, we have around 15 people who have committed, and maybe another 10 who have inquired about moving in.”

Shiflett said he also has long-term plans to add a memory care facility for Alzheimer’s patients at the site.

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