Wood River Turns a Crisis into a Community Development Triumph with Completion of Legacy Station

Community to hold grand opening celebration for Legacy Station on Saturday, July 25th

Fierce storms struck Central Nebraska in 2019, causing the worst flooding in decades. In the small town of Wood River, rising flood waters forced the local nursing home to evacuate its residents and transfer them to another facility in a nearby community.

In the wake of the flooding, the nursing home announced its decision to permanently shut down its Wood River location. Its closure put about 40 people out of work and left a 25,000-square-foot building sitting vacant.

As the community of 1,350 residents reeled from news of the nursing home’s closure, local leaders met to discuss their options. At the time of the floods, Wood River Vision 20/20, a community planning group, had been raising funds to build a childcare center. With the former nursing home now sitting empty, they wondered if it could be repurposed.

Turning a crisis into opportunity

“The nursing home was open until the day the flood hit,” explained Sara Arnett, community volunteer and Compliance Officer for Heritage Bank in Wood River. “The building was in good condition. It wasn’t in disrepair. We had planned to build a new childcare center by our aquatic center, but with [the costs of] new construction we only would have been able to afford about 7,500 square feet.”

The owner of the vacant nursing home agreed to sell it to the community for a nominal price of $100,000. Leaders in Wood River then immediately took action to transform half of the former nursing home facility (renamed as Legacy Station) into a childcare center.

They raised money for renovations—with major support from Wood River Community Foundation, Grand Island Community Foundation, and Heartland United Way—and got to work repurposing the building. The state supported the project through the Community Development Block Grant program. Stick Creek Kids Child Development Center opened in 2021, representing the first phase of the Legacy Station project.

One building, many possibilities

A committee then met to determine what to do with the other half of the former nursing home. At the time, the public library was preparing to expand, but there was not much room to grow at its existing location. “We were due for a bigger library because we were honestly out of space,” explained Veronica Kaufman, Library Director for the Maltman Memorial Library. “It would have taken a lot of structural changes to make [an expansion] work.”

The City successfully applied for a planning grant through the state’s Civic and Community Center Financing Fund (CCCFF) to determine the best course of action for the library project. The study examined two options: upgrading the library at its original location or moving it into Legacy Station. The results showed that it made much more sense to move the library into Legacy Station, which would provide the library with three times its current space.

Improving community resources

In addition to the childcare center and the library, Wood River saw opportunities to use Legacy Station to achieve other goals. These included a new home for the town’s food pantry and senior center.

“Our food pantry is run by the churches in town,” explained Arnett. “It’s all volunteer, but they’ve never had a space of their own, and that makes it challenging.” The pantry provides 75+ food backpacks to local kids each week, as well as being a general resource for community members in need of food.

The senior center in Wood River had also been operating in less-than-ideal conditions. “It was in a small, old building that was very dated. It was not particularly accessible, with very limited space,” said Arnett.

With support from a CCCFF construction grant, and generous funding from area foundations, Wood River was able to remodel the rest of Legacy Station to house both a new food pantry and a new senior center. This summer, the finishing touches are being made to these projects—with a grand opening set for Saturday, July 25th.

Additionally, Legacy Station created its own public emergency storm shelter (steel/concrete reinforced restrooms), which automatically unlocks when storm sirens start, to check off another community need. Stick Creek Kids contains a similar storm shelter for its own use.

“I remember us debating that expense with the childcare center renovation project, because it was going to be another $75,000-$80,000 back in 2020,” said Arnett. “But we knew that [building an emergency shelter] would protect our precious children and staff.”

When the town endured an uncharacteristic December storm that included both a tornado warning and 85 mile-per-hour winds, all the teachers and kids from Stick Creek Kids Child Development Center were able to safely take shelter. “We were sure glad we had it,” said Arnett. “Now the public has a shelter in Legacy Station’s ‘hub’ as well!”

A legacy for future generations

Wood River Mayor Greg Cramer, who was mayor during the 2019 floods, said that seeing Legacy Station take shape throughout his time in office has been impactful. “To see it from start to finish has been great for me, especially since I work in construction. It’s great to reuse this facility because a lot of towns don’t get to do that,” he explained.

Now, this structure left vacant by the 2019 floods has become a bustling community hub serving residents of every generation. “We are working hard in Wood River to make this community be a place where young families want to come and put down roots,” Arnett added. “Legacy Station is now a capstone project. It’s the cherry on top of years of work by lots of community leaders.”

The grand opening for Legacy Station will take place from 10:00 am to noon, July 25th, at 1401 East St., Wood River, NE 68883. Learn more about Legacy Station here: www.woodriverne.com/town/legacy-station.