Friendship Ridge history

1964 -- East wing opened with 193 beds; administrator Joseph W. Mulroy hired.

July 1965 -- Medicare and Medicaid programs established.

September 1972 -- Mulroy departs after eight years.

November 1974 -- Nonprofessional employees vote to join Local 585 of the Service Employees International Union.

January 1975 -- County established a nonprofit corporation, known as the Beaver Valley Geriatric Center, to take over private ownership of the hospital in order to secure state funding available only to non-public facilities.

July 1976 -- New $3.8 million, 99-bed wing dedicated.

July 1981 -- Administrator Cosmo Morabito departs after nine years.

March 1982 -- County selects the Medical Center of Beaver County to take over management; the agreement is later transferred to the hospital’s parent corporation, DECA Services Inc.

Doctor Ram Uppuluri and his wife, Shigeko, originally hatched the idea to construct a bell for Oak Ridge during a visit to Japan in September 1987.

As early as 1991, the International Friendship Bell Committee faced resistance based on anti-Japanese attitudes, using taxpayer money to fund the construction, and debate over the meaning of the Bell.

Iwasawa visited the intended site in Bissell Park in 1993 and agreed to cast the Bell at a discount, estimated to be around $83,000.

May 1994 -- County begins shipping jail inmates’ laundry to the geriatric center for cleaning.

The International Friendship Bell was officially dedicated on May 3-4, 1996, at A.K. Bissell Park, but not without controversy.

The city ordinance limiting the Bell’s usage lasted until May 7, 2001, when an eighth grader, Elise Campbell, submitted a request to remove the restrictions.

October 2004 -- County and Heritage Valley Health System, formerly the Medical Center, end management contract after 22 years.

February 2005 -- Officials search for director to run new day-care center at the facility.

When warning about the dangers of privatization, SEIU has repeatedly pointed to Cambria and Lackawanna counties, both of which sold their nursing homes in 2010.

July 2012 -- Residents, families upset by moves related to closing of 4-East wing.

BeaverCountian.com published well over 100 articles about the facility, its New York owners, and a tumultuous 2013 corporate acquisition of what was once the publicly-owned Friendship Ridge nursing home.