TOWER CITY, Pa. -- A senior living facility in Tower City is under new management after it's former administrator embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from it.
The new owners are focused on putting the past behind them and offering their residents not only the best care possible, but also hospitality.
Newswatch 16 first told you about Heritage Mills Personal Care and Memory Assistance Center in February of 2017. Back then, the facility's administrator at the time, Scott Capparell, was accused of embezzling nearly $400,000.
"He was here when we purchased it, but those crimes were committed prior to our ownership," Senior Health Care Solutions President Michael Kelly said. "When we came in, we found some discrepancies and alerted the previous owners."
After the embezzlement, Senior Health Care Solutions bought the facility. They renovated it and hired all new staff.
"We came in. We put a tremendous amount of capital into the facility," Kelly said. "We re-branded the whole operation. We hired and trained new staff, and now the facility is up to the standards we set at Senior Health Care Solutions."
Senior Health Care Solutions owns several other senior living facilities throughout the region. The company's goal was to help Heritage Mills recover after Capparell's arrest.
"While we're very good at providing the clinical side of care, we also want to make sure that each resident was receiving the best level of service possible," Extreme Hospitality Chief Development Officer Eric Rubino said.
People who live at Heritage Mills now say they enjoy their time there, including Virginia Gillespie.
"They're great," Gillespie said. "They've always been polite, courteous, considerate. What else can you ask for?"
Back in 2017, Capparell was sentenced to about two years in prison.
Heritage Mills held an open house this past Saturday to invite the community into the facility since the changes since then.