Council eyes having public forum to discuss options
Just days after the announcement was made that Vetter Senior Living (VSL) would be closing Rose Lane Home in Loup City, Loup City municipal leaders held a frank discussion concerning the future of the facility and what its closure would mean for the Sherman County community.
Last Tuesday night, during the Loup City City Council’s regular February meeting, members of the council discussed the recent development concerning the long-term care facility and what the city’s next steps should be.
“I asked [City Clerk AJ Reimers] to put it on the agenda, just so that I could say how things transpired on our end of things,” said Loup City Mayor Laura Hart when introducing the agenda item last Tuesday night. “I wanted to put it on the agenda to get the city council’s opinion on it.”
During the nearly fifteen-minute-long discussion concerning VSL’s plans to close Rose Lane Home, Mayor Hart walked those present through the timeline that developed on January 30th and mentioned some of the immediate concerns that she and other city and community leaders had had in the wake of the previous week’s news.
“Some of the concerns have already been mentioned about the long-term impact to the community,” Hart said. “Long-term, we are not going to know the effects for at least a year, if not longer.”
At the core of the discussion had been the impact that the loss of so many local jobs would have on Loup City and the local economy.
According to Hart, during a meeting held on January 30th, it was mentioned that the facility employed seventy-five people, thirty- nine of which have Loup City addresses. The mayor said that that figure was all that she was provided with, adding that she is aware that employees could also be from around the county and area.
“I am gravely concerned about how this is going to affect city sales tax seeing that we bonded $1.8 million in streets,” the mayor said. “We are looking at at least thirty-nine local jobs being lost, which is why I am concerned about sales tax, because that is what funds our municipality.”
Hart, at one point, suggested that it may be wise for the city to “return those funds to the bonding agent,” saying that street repairs in the city may have to wait a few years longer.
“When I am looking at the longevity and the health of the community, and looking at bonding $1.8 million for streets, that was fine as long as the funds were coming in,” the mayor said. “But now, in a year, if they are not... when we have to make those payments, that might not be the most fiscally responsible thing to do.
“We are going to have to make some hard decisions.”
Wanting the sidestep any knee-jerk reactions to the previous week’s news, Marc Krueger said that, in light of the information that the City of Loup City had sold VSL the facility in 1995—news that Krueger said he had just learned from a remark made by Hart during last week’s meeting—he believed it best if the city first examined the contract of the sale.
“I think first we have to pull the contract from back in 1995,” Krueger said. “Once we read that contract, then we set up a townhall meeting to get some community input.”
City Attorney Jason White questioned whether the original contract had contained any “reversionary language,” which would return ownership to the municipality if the facility was closed. However, the mayor said that the city would have to locate the contract prior to taking any next steps.
Another key component of last Tuesday night’s discussion had been what exactly had caused VSL to identify Rose Lane Home as a potential facility to close.
According to Sherman County Economic Development Inc. Executive Director Melissa Dush, during the process of writing a grant last year, she had identified that there had been eleven job openings at VSL’s Loup City location. Dush said that the company had 243 job openings over its twenty- six campuses.
“That is about ten per location,” Dush said. “We had eleven when I checked in December when I was writing a grant.
“I feel like that wasn’t out of line.”
Mayor Hart agreed. “While we were told workforce is the issue, it is comparable to what their openings are at every other location,” she said.
“Consolidation is all I can figure out, at the end of the day,” added Dush.
Dush also said that, initially, she had considered that the facility could be used for a type of “light assisted living” or for “independent living,” options that would not require the level of care—nor the staffing— that the long-term care facility currently offers. However, those options, the executive director said, were taken off the table after she was made aware that not all of Rose Lane Home’s current assisted living spots had been filled.
“The assisted living only had six of the twelve beds full, but that was due to lack of interest, not staffing on that portion,” Dush said.
During last Tuesday night’s city council meeting, multiple ideas were floated as to the reasons for VSL’s decision to close the facility and what actions the city could take to soften the blow dealt by the closure. Among the ideas mentioned by those in attendance were cutting spending across all city departments and, potentially, even selling city assets.
“That is why I think there is a benefit to having a town hall meeting, just to bring all ideas out,” Mayor Hart said. “We need to start looking at it creatively.”
Hart said that, beyond of the future of longterm care in Loup City, the city was also concerned about the future of the building.
The mayor said that, in some cases, VSL had sold other facilities for “a dollar” after they had closed them. In other instances, when there was another health care organization or longterm care facility in the community, those organizations would take the facility over and continue operating it.
“That is not the case that is happening here,” said the mayor.
At the conclusion of her remarks, Hart said that if Loup City was going to find a way to solve its current long-term care issues, creativity would be key.
“It is creative thinking, and that is what it is going to take,” the mayor said. “We are going to have to start thinking outside the box.”
