Joe McWilliams
Lakeside Leader

Look for some changes this year in the look of Lakeview Optometry in Slave Lake. With a municipal zoning hurdle having been cleared last week, Dr. Eve-Sarai Niedergesaess plans to move ahead with the purchase of the building, followed by extensive renovations.

Stage 1 of the plan, Dr. Eve tells The Leader, is to apply for financing. Assuming that’s successful, and the building is purchased, Stage 2 would be to find a contractor to do the renovation work. That will be mostly inside stuff, says Dr. Eve, but could conclude with some exterior changes as well.

“We’ll likely do one side at a time and not have to close for too long,” she says.

The current space is pretty cramped. Dr. Eve told town council her business has grown a lot in the eight or so years she’s owned it, and it needs more room. One thing she’d like to increase are ‘dry eye’ services. A lot of these have to be referred elsewhere now, she says.

Dr. Eve would also like to expand from a single examination room to four, not to mention add a lunch room for staff, which there isn’t space for now.

“In the long run, I’d like to be able to have another optometrist,” she says.

But first things first, and that’s the renovations. The doctor hopes to get all of that done in 2023.