From left, Donna DeBlois, executive director, Kno-Wal-Lin Home Care and Hospice; Sarah Dwelley, Director of Hospice and Palliative Care for Kno-Wal-Lin and Penney Read, vice president for development, PBH, discuss the Pen Bay Healthcare Hospice House project at a community meeting Friday, Jan. 23, at the Rockland Public Library. "There is a lot of healing taking place at hospice houses," noted Dwelley.

Pen Bay Healthcare and Kno-Wal-Lin Home Care and Hospice remain fully committed to fulfilling the community's need for hospice services. Construction of an actual house, new and separate from any existing structure, is on hold due to current economic conditions.

"In the coming months, we expect to have additional information for both donors and the public about how this project will be moving forward," said Donna DeBlois, executive director of Kno-Wal-Lin.

"The community has told us that a freestanding home for a complete Hospice Program is vital and necessary," said DeBlois. "In the current economic environment, Pen Bay Healthcare is being very careful about all expenditures, and especially about new projects that require capital outlay and long term support."

To date, Pen Bay Healthcare has raised $1.4 million for Hospice House. That money is safe and earning interest in a money market account at Camden National Bank, according to Penney Read, PBH vice president for development. As has been the intention from the start, those funds will be used for a hospice project to serve the community for the long term, with plans to include landscaping and other aspects already funded through donors' generosity, said Read.

Pen Bay Healthcare is fully committed to building a Hospice House, once all the money for the project has been raised, said DeBlois. In the meantime, an interim solution, housing a hospice facility within an existing PBH location, is being explored, she said.

Pen Bay Healthcare and Kno-Wal-Lin are working with local and state regulatory boards to determine where and how this interim idea can come to fruition. A decision is expected some time in April.