Excitement is building for an age friendly facility in Plum Coulee. After two years of discussions and fund raising, a ground breaking on Thursday officially kicked off construction of the building that will replace the old seniors' centre on Main Avenue.

"We're really excited about what we're doing," said project committee member, June Letkeman. "It started about two years ago when we had a town hall meeting and we decided we really needed a new facility...and we've been raising money ever since."

Brian Derksen also serves on the project committee and says the 40'x80' building is the same size as the old seniors' centre but will feature a more efficient footprint. The facility will seat seventy-five people and include a kitchen, washrooms, two lanes for floor curling and shuffleboard, and a pool table.

Derksen hopes that by accommodating a seniors' coffee break in the morning and other activities in the evening, the age friendly facility will bring people of all ages together.

"The idea is that it will be a community builder, that people will get to know each other. Because the young population is somewhat more transient and we find that some of the young people don't even know each other," he said.

Meantime, Letkeman added the hope is to one day hire a part-time recreation director.

"So we can have things like exercise classes, maybe yoga, card nights and all kinds of activities. We hope it's a very busy place."

She noted support for the project has been amazing, and pointed to the fact that $300,000 dollars has been raised in just two years. "I think that's quite a feat."

Letkeman did admit that the money raised so far will only cover the cost of building the shell of the building and said more donations will need to come in in order to finish it off with the kitchen and other equipment.

Derksen is confident the extra cash will come in.

Concrete work on the facility will get underway next week with overall constructed expected to wrap up by the end of February.