Residential Complex Opens at Warm Springs

Sept. 26, 2010 - Staff and students at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation celebrated the grand opening of the new state-of-the-art, $20 million residential and vocational complex today.

“The opening of this complex is an important step in maintaining the Roosevelt Institute’s legacy as a national leader in vocational and medical rehabilitation,” said State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler.

The state-of-the-art complex has apartments and dormitory-style accommodations for 152 students. The 75,000-square-foot facility includes a library, vending café and multiple meeting rooms. The meeting rooms will be used for evening activities, peer-group opportunities and organized group functions. The complex has a massive entry hall, featuring exposed hardwood beams cut and constructed from the trees that formerly grew on the site. Also, there is an outdoor amphitheater at the rear of the complex.

“It’s already a showplace for our campus and a tremendous improvement over the building we’ve used since vocational rehabilitation was started here in 1964,” said Greg Schmieg, the Warm Spring Institute executive director.

The school’s near $20 million cost was funded though $9.8 million in state bond sales and matching federal funds.

A new GDOLCareerCenter opens at the Institute’s Georgia Hall in October. A satellite of the GDOL’s LaGrangeCareerCenter, it will serve all job seekers and employers in MeriwetherCounty, as well as the Institute’s vocational students and clients. It will offer the same services as all GDOL Career Centers.

FDR would be very proud of Warm Springs' continuing role to help the disabled

EDITORIAL from newnan-times herald

One of Georgia's most famous historical sites is the nearby Little White House in Warm Springs where President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945. Roosevelt spent much time in the Meriwether County Little White House and made car trips into Newnan and CowetaCounty during the 1930s and early 1940s.

Roosevelt was drawn to Warm Springs because of his polio. He founded the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation in 1927 to treat people affected by polio.

Although polio has been virtually eradicated, the Warm Springs Institute has continued to treat the disabled. The institute, now operated by the Georgia Department of Labor, will celebrate a significant milestone Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a m. and an open house at the institute's new RooseveltSchool.

The new $20 million facility will replace a five-story dormitory built in the early 1960s. The new 75,000-square foot complex will house 152 disabled students.

Franklin Roosevelt would be proud his Little White House is such a popular historic landmark and tourist attraction today. He would be even prouder of the new school and the continuing effort of the institute for rehabilitation to modernize this facility to help the disabled.

During his days in Warm Springs, Roosevelt spent much time being treated for his disability. He also spent much time with others who were being treated for polio at Warm Springs. He would no doubt take great pride today in the continuation of work to help the disabled. (Reprinted with Permission)

Quick Facts

• Design Professional: Cooper Carry and Associates
• General Contractor: Batson-Cook Construction
• GSFIC Project Manager: Dennis Townsend
• GSFIC Contract Compliance Specialist: Chris Cowell