Inside look at a new pioneer
By Daniel Arens
Recently, several major projects around the county have celebrated their completions (or, at least, near-completions). Sakakawea Medical Center held its grand opening in April (it’s official dedication is next week), while the new courthouse in Stanton opened its doors to the public late in August.
Last Thursday, there was another addition to the list of projects realized.
Hazen Pioneer Apartments, the new low-income senior housing facility located along the east end of Main Street in Hazen, held its ribbon cutting and public tours Oct. 26.
Buster Langowski, Hazen Community Development (HCD) executive director, thanked those who showed up for the opening program at Hazen City Hall. He noted that it was a year and 10 days since the groundbreaking ceremony for work on the apartment building began.
“Of course, there’s always lots of people behind the scenes that make things like this work,” Langowski said.
Jerry Obenauer, Hazen City Commission president, spoke as well, thanking Langowski for his work. “Buster, he’s an education guy. But he jumped right into this.”
Hazen Pioneer Apartments is located on the site of the former Pioneer Park home. Initially, the plan was to remodel the old building as the new senior housing center, but in a late change it was decided to tear down that structure and start from scratch. The foundation of the old building was left intact for the new one, while a two-story addition running north-south towards Main St. was also added.
