Sunset Haven gets a reprieve, maybe

A small group of concerned Curtis residents met with representatives from Sunset Haven at a meeting held by the Medicine Valley Economic Development Corporation last Wednesday afternoon to discuss the future of the nursing home.
Brad Welch and Lannie Roblee instigated the meeting in the hopes of buying the facility more time. The two discussed this possibility with Sunset Haven board member Norma Lashley and facility director Jerry Rothemeyer.
I was at the meeting.
The discussion ranged from forming a corporation and buying the debt to merging Sunset Have with Senior Living Choices. None of the options appear easy.
Director Rothemeyer told those in attendance that even with no debt Sunset Haven would struggle, but it may be able to survive.
The financial difficulties stem from a low resident census at the facility.
Sunset Haven currently has 32 beds. Hillside Estates, the assisted living portion of the operation, has 16 beds. At the meeting Rothemeyer said there were just 22 patients currently checked in at Sunset Haven, while there were 12 at Hillside Estates. He said he thought Sunset Haven needed to have a minimum of 27 beds filled to break even.
Roblee and Welch told Rothemeyer and Lashley that they thought they could raise enough money locally to pay Sunset Haven's insurance premium and help keep the facility open another year. The two Sunset Haven representatives took the proposal back to the board where the matter was discussed and the rescission made, but with caveats. The Sunset Haven board wants the money raised by January 15th.
We will see how this goes.

Scooped by the Telegraph

We had someone walk into the office today saying they thought the NP Telegraph had "scooped" us on a story. All newspapers hate to be "scooped" so we got the latest issue of the telegraph to see what we had missed.
Well on the front page of the Telegraph was a big story on how George Garlick, remember him, he is the former Curtis resident who donated $1 million dollars for the Curtis Community Center, was in town and preparing to help the area with some economic development.
We knew of the story, I attended the meeting spoke of in the story. But I had been asked not to discuss this in print. As a matter of fact Mr. Garlick asked at the beginning of his comments that this matter be kept out of the paper until things were farther along.
So I was surprised to see the story in the Telegraph. Maybe the folks at the Telegraph interpreted Mr. Garlick's instructions differently than I did, maybe they didn't receive the instructions, I don't know. But believe me we are aware of this story and when the time is appropriate we will provide our readers with the most complete, accurate, and detailed facts on this and all other big matters in our area.
So, maybe we were "scooped" but I'm not willing to dishonor his request and write the story to save our newspaper from being scooped.

A first for the newspaper

Well, we have moved into the 21st Century here at the newspaper. That's right we now have a blog. I will update this column as I see necessary. Maybe it will be in middle of the week and maybe it will be my column, if I write one, from that week's paper.
I hope you all enjoy this, I know I will.
See you soon.