The health care center in New Richmond, Wis., will not appear on the real estate market any time soon, according to a recommendation from the St. Croix County Board of Supervisors, who recently voted to continue county-owned operations and also expand dementia care services.
As part of ongoing annual county budget discussions, the board has been reviewing the finances of the St. Croix County Health Care Campus. One of three options listed in the review was “explore selling the facility.” Members of the administration board first broached the idea in June.
That suggestion sparked a strong rebuke from community members over the past few weeks, as more than 100 residents attended an Aug. 27 board meeting dedicated to a 10-year review of the campus. Many spoke in favor of keeping the health center under county ownership.
At the August meeting, the board eventually voted to expand services by opening the Kitty Rhoades Memory Care Unit, and also to transfer $500,000 from the fund balance to help service debt related to 20-year, $20 million bonds that were used to rebuild the facility in 2016. That unanimous recommendation now goes to the county’s administration committee.
“There was never any serious conversation with anybody about a sale of the entity,” St. Croix County Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Bob Feidler told the Pioneer Press. “It was raised as a possible option among many options; we knew where we sat financially.”
Financially healthy
Why did the finances of the health care campus come under question?
As part of the County Board’s review of county finances, a large part of the budget is the health care campus, St. Croix County Public Information Officer Adam Kastonek said. With questions about services offered, debt service payments and possible future operations, the staff prepared a 10-year review for the board. The entire county budget is set to be approved in November.
The idea of a sale was floated during a St. Croix County Administration Committee meeting on June 18, when members debated if the county should continue to operate a health care facility long-term.
Suggesting he was looking at it purely from a financial standpoint, St. Croix County Board of Supervisors Chair Bob Long said it would be worthwhile to examine the possibility of selling the campus.
“We may find that it’s a really dumb idea and we wouldn’t do it,” Long said at the June meeting. “But I think it’s at least worth investigating that option.”
As per its 10-year review, the board found at the August meeting that the health care campus is financially healthy. After operating with a negative unrestricted fund balance from 2011 to 2020, the Health Care Campus has flipped into the black in each of the past three years, growing its unrestricted fund balance to $1.4 million in 2023.
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With bond payments set to increase next year from $1.1 million to about $1.6 million, the county board recommended transferring $500,000 from the unrestricted fund balance to help with debt service.
Meanwhile, the county announced it has received a $600,000 grant from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Bureau of Aging and Disability Resources, which will be used to open the Kitty Rhoades Memory Care Unit. That unit will focus on care for patients living with dementia.
Feidler said those operations are expected to be revenue positive for the health care campus, as well.
“We keep the nursing home, we expand services, and we are able to cover extra debt payment and (stop) a tax increase for residents,” Feidler said. “It was a win-win-win.”
Long-time community support
While the viability of the county operating a health care center has been questioned in the past, the greater community has historically given the green light to keeping the center’s doors open, giving strong support in two previous referendums.
In 2008, 65 percent of voters supported operation of the county nursing home, even if property tax dollars were needed to fund operations. In 2012, 63 percent of voters again supported county operations of the center if property taxes were needed to partially pay for it.
When the idea to explore selling the campus was floated in June, a Facebook group — “Keep St. Croix County’s Nursing Home” — popped up soon after, with hundreds more levying support for the center.
At the heart of the issue are bigger questions: Should the county government continue to operate a health care facility? Is that a proper function of local government?
Hudson resident Roy Sjoberg, a former county supervisor himself, spoke in favor of the health care center at the Aug. 27 meeting, saying that during his tenure constituents routinely told him about the importance of the facility to the greater community. He questioned why the long-term viability was called under review when the financial documents paint a fiscally strong picture.
Even if the nursing home wasn’t in the black, it still provides a vital resource, Sjoberg said. Such a move just causes anxiety in the community.
“Everything the county does isn’t a business, and is not a business model. This is health care,” Sjoberg said. “What do you mean, ‘Study the nursing home?’ Why would you study the nursing home? It’s doing fine. No one has called the question. So when the question is called, I think the natural outcome is nervousness, and some people are going to jump to the conclusion that maybe it’s going to be sold.”
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Hudson resident Celeste Koeberl spoke at the Aug. 27 meeting, and is a member of “Keep St. Croix County’s Nursing Home.” For her, the overwhelming support from the community shows that the directive is clear.
“This is a mandated service, and the mandate is from the people of St. Croix County,” Koeberl said. “We are mandating that our county continue to own, operate and provide this service for the common good of our community.”
While the August recommendation was good news, Koeberl said, she urged residents to continue following the board decisions until the budget is finalized.
“We appreciate Bob Feidler’s assurances, but it’s a 19-member board. We need to continue watching,” she said.
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