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Back in 2006, Sears Methodist Retirement System Inc. announced it would build "Tyler's first continuing care retirement community" off Smith County Road 165 south of town.

On Thursday it will break ground on the community, Meadow Lake, with a 10 a.m. ceremony at the Meadow Lake model executive home near the main entrance to the site on CR 165. A barbecue lunch will be served. In case of inclement weather, the invitation event will be conducted at Marvin United Methodist Church.

Meadow Lake is a $65 million senior living community that will be located on 92 acres of land. The concept of a continuing care retirement community is one that provides all levels of care including residential living, executive homes and apartments, assisted living and skilled nursing care on a single campus.

Sears Methodist Retirement System is the largest not-for-profit provider of senior housing and health care in the state, serving more than 2,000 residents on 13 campuses in eight Texas cities. Members of the SMRS staff have been working with local people who have been involved with this project for the past 15 years.

According to information from SMRS, more than 15 years ago a group of Marvin United Methodist Church members saw a need for a senior living community in Tyler for people ages 55 and older. The church approached Methodist Retirement Communities about the project.

But after 15 years of inactivity, MRC returned the 92 acres back to the church. In 2005 the group offered the land to Sears Methodist Retirement System, which agreed to use it to develop Meadow Lake.

The ground-breaking ceremony marks the celebration of reaching a 65 percent pre-sales goal for Phase I of the project.

Seven Interns

The Family Medicine Residency Program at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler filled its seven intern positions with medical students, said Donna Mann, program manager for residency recruitment and training.

She said only 44 percent of the family medicine residency program positions available nationwide this year were filled with graduating seniors from U.S. medical schools.

"The fact that we attracted these interns speaks to the excellence of our Family Medicine Residency Program," she said. "Our success is a testament to the tremendous support of UTHSCT and its educational mission. In addition, the cooperation of health care facilities and physicians in Tyler and surrounding areas enables us to attract these top-notch recruits to train in our superb facilities and to care for the people of East Texas," she said.

During the match process, medical students interested in family medicine interview at selected residency programs, then send their preferences to the National Resident Matching Program, Mann said. The matching program ranks the family medicine programs in the order of each medical student's interest. Each residency program also sends its list, which ranks students according to the program's preferences, to matching program officials. The lists are then "matched up" and all participants notified of the results.

The new interns and the medical schools they graduated from are: Dr. Jared Dixon, University of Arkansas College of Medicine; Dr. Jason Gipson, Texas Tech University School of Medicine; Dr. Jennifer Lee, Louisiana State University School of Medicine; Dr. Andrea Melton Ellis, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School; Dr. Wes Pemberton, UT Southwestern; Dr. Joel Richards, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine; and Dr. Jessica Varnam, Loma Linda University School of Medicine.

The new physicians will start their residency training on July 1. The health science center's Family Medicine Residency Program began in 1985. It is a three-year program and has graduated 118 family physicians. More than half of these have stayed in East Texas.

Honorees

John Sykes, chief executive officer of the East Texas State Fair, and Ted Conover, president and chief executive officer of the Bank of Tyler, were honored during a March 13 appreciation dinner by Agricultural Workers Mutual Auto Insurance.

Marcus Hill, president and chairman of the board for Ag Workers, presented the awards.

Sykes came to the East Texas State Fair after 10 years with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. He led all facets of the livestock show, horse show, calf scramble, wine competition, international program and the auction programs. Responsible for all fundraising activities, he led volunteers to raise more than $10 million per year. His total budget responsibility was more than $25 million.

Conover began working for Heritage Land Bank, a financial institution that makes agricultural real estate, equipment, livestock and production loans, in January 1974. He served as its president and CEO from 1985 to 2005. During that time he transitioned Heritage from a loan production and servicing association to a full service financial institution.

In October 2005, he became president and CEO of Bank of Tyler, a division of Huntington State Bank.

Business Editor Greg Junek may be reached at 903-596-6280, or by e-mail at business@tylerpaper.com.