Assisted-living relocation 'going smoothly'
<p>All of the residents of Greenwood Village Assisted Living in Kalispell have been placed in other facilities since the closure of the facility was announced last month.</p>
All of the residents of Greenwood Village Assisted Living in Kalispell have been placed with other facilities since receiving 30-day notices that the facility will close in late March.
One by one, the elderly and disabled residents are being moved to their new homes, buoyed by support from the Flathead County Agency on Aging and the community.
“It’s going smoothly,” said Susan Kunda, senior ombudsman with the Agency on Aging. “Everyone has been placed.”
While arrangements have been made for all 23 Greenwood residents, 14 of them have not moved yet. Most of the remaining residents will move over the coming weekend.
Kunda said families of the residents have rallied to help their loved ones, taking a pragmatic approach of “OK, this is what we’ve got to do.”
After overcoming the initial shock of having to move, Greenwood residents also seemed to make the best of their plight.
“I didn’t have a lot of whining or hysteria,” Kunda said. “Everyone was pretty much on board.”
Staff at Greenwood Village Assisted Living said the community support has been huge, with many people offering boxes, strapping tape and their own physical strength and vehicles to move the elderly residents.
Greenwood Village owner Dennis Rasmussen said he and a lead staff member called other area assisted-living centers prior to his decision to close his facility. He said he may convert the building into a hotel, but a final decision has not yet been made.
“We haven’t decided completely on a hotel, but it is looking strong that way,” Rasmussen said. “We’ll at least get it in shape and maybe sell it.”
At age 75, Rasmussen said he would like to sell not only the assisted-living building but also the adjoining mobile home park and campground that he and his wife, Beverly, have owned for 44 years.
“I’ve served the public here for 17 years” with the assisted-living center, he said. “I took 10 years of my retirement in caring for people. I’ve worked here seven days a week the last 17 years. I’m always checking in to make sure things are running ... Our business is caring.”
The decision to close the facility wasn’t made lightly, he said. “We’ve been mulling it over for some time. We have to downsize a little bit.”
Rasmussen said he has taken an active role in providing activities for Greenwood’s assisted-living residents, taking groups of seniors to his farm to fish in his pond. He and his wife also have taken residents on sightseeing trips to Glacier National Park.
Greenwood Village Assisted Living has been a family business: Two of the Rasmussens’ sons have worked there, along with their granddaughters. Beverly handles the bookkeeping.
When Rasmussen invested $4 million to build the assisted-living building 17 years ago, he did so after researching senior living options and finding a gap between seniors living in their own homes and going to nursing homes.
Within eight months, his 47-bed facility was full, and the business flourished until the downturn in the economy a few years ago.
“We struggled along, and there are fixed costs no matter what,” he said.
Through the years several other assisted-living facilities have been built in the Flathead, Rasmussen said, to the point “where they’re like gas stations; there’s one on every corner.”
Greenwood Village Assisted Living was at about 50 percent occupancy when Rasmussen made the decision to close the facility by late March.
Kunda said area assisted-living centers had ample availability as she helped residents and their families consider relocation options. Timber Creek Village in Columbia Falls and Prestige Assisted Living and Welcov Assisted Living, both in Kalispell, are among the facilities accommodating Greenwood residents.
“It’s going smoothly because we have so many assisted-living facilities with so many openings,” Kunda said.
Some of the facilities also were able to accommodate residents with Medicaid waivers. Kunda has been working with Adult Protective Services and the Medicaid waiver representative for this area, in addition to the Montana Department of Health and Human Services.
Several Greenwood residents opted to move to nursing homes, Kunda said, adding that Heritage Place in Kalispell took four residents. A couple of residents are moving in with family members and at least one resident was able to find a handicap-accessible apartment.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.