.jpg)
— Trisha Benton
Cedar County News
LAUREL – The Hillcrest Care Center will be closing after a unanimous vote by the Laurel City Council at a special meeting Friday morning.
“The financial burden on the City of Laurel is greater than we can bear,” said Councilman Chris Hartung before making the motion to close the facility.
The facility will be closed in 60 days, said City Attorney Keelan Holloway.
A state-placed interim facility administrator and director of nursing were in charge at Hillcrest Friday morning.
The last registered nurse submitted her immediate resignation Thursday, leaving the facility without the required top-level nursing staff, after mass staff resignations occurred over council inaction.
The council did not allow any staff to rescind their resignations, even though they were willing to come back after nursing home administrator Megan Wieck’s employment was severed Monday.
Former Laurel Mayor Scott Rath said at Friday’s meeting that city officials continue to blame employees for speaking out and advocating for residents instead of acknowledging their own mismanagement.
“When do we persecute whistleblowers? If they would not have alerted us in January, we would not know the condition of our facility,” he said. “The rest of you all knew, including the mayor, what the financial status of the facility was. A year ago, the financial status was terrible. It’s almost like you wanted it to fail. It looks like that. We have four, five-star staff, that’s the people you want leading your company. We treat them as the instigators. They’re not the instigators. Why are you doing this? You’ve got the best staff, some of those put in their resignations, I don’t know why the heck you won’t take them back. It’s like you’re being vindictive.”
Publicly, Laurel city officials have minimized Hillcrest’s financial woes while at the same time an impassioned nursing home staff and community members have rallied in an effort to save it from closing.
Starting in January, Hillcrest staff exposed the city-owned facility’s financial obligations were swelling year over year to more than $450,000 in accounts deemed open payables - in other words, unpaid bills. Many of the bills continue to go unpaid despite an increasing line of credit.
The city said the document circulated doesn’t give the full financial picture and didn’t include accounts receivable information. Instead - at that time in January - the city said Hillcrest’s working capital deficit was only $66,385. In February, the council voted to approve another line of credit of $180,000 just so the facility could make payroll.
Wieck as facility administrator made decisions about which vendors got paid. As a result of non-payment, many vendors stopped doing business with the facility including staffing agencies and supply companies.
Staff said they brought their concerns of financial instability and administrative mismanagement to light about two years ago to the seven-member nursing home advisory board. After the board started questioning the facility administrator, the council and mayor, the nursing home board was dissolved in May 2024. In its place, the mayor and city council were tasked with overseeing the center’s operations, governance and administration.
The city courted a potential buyer last month but the company ultimately did not follow through with the purchase.
The council’s ultimate decision left Hillcrest nurse Laura Showen in tears for the residents who will now have to move away from their community.
One of the most vocal of Hillcrest staff, Wendy Krie said the welfare of the residents gave her the courage to speak out.
“I’m not proud of some of the things I said and how I said them but I’m trying to save our residents’ homes and I put that as a priority,” she said. “If I can see even one sliver of hope in something, it’s like a disease. I cannot give up. The worst part is they (the mayor and council) didn’t care what happened to our residents.”
Others in the audience at Friday’s meeting were left with more questions, especially what happens to all those bank loans?
“We will handle those matters at future meetings,” Holloway said. “What happens with what’s owed? That’s going to have to be addressed. We don’t have an answer for that now. We will probably have a solution in the next 60 days.”
About 40 people attended the meeting and the council received public comment before approving the nursing home closure. At times, people were yelling out questions and comments from the crowd, and at other times, audience members clapped for those speaking.
Mayor Keith Knudsen did not attend Friday’s meeting. Some community members said he has been ill for several days.
Rath said the public rallied around Hillcrest, had come up with a solid leadership plan and budget, and were willing to raise money for the cause - but the council was not open to that from the start.
“You’re good people. You’re friends of mine. I know you. But something has changed. I don’t know what has changed with your thinking,” he said. “Laurel has been a community that has always stood up for the task, we’ve raised money for this building, the ambulance, for the volunteer fire department, and you’re telling me, we can’t help the largest employer - other than the school - the most vulnerable people of Laurel that reside there? That we’re just going to let it go?”
At Friday’s meeting, the council originally had planned to appoint Amanda Fairchild as interim administrator but tabled it due to the state coming in for the nursing home’s remaining days open.
Then, the council attempted to go into an executive session to discuss the future of Hillcrest but Rath and Alesia Barker objected to it, stating no valid reason was given to going into executive session. After some hesitation, Holloway stated it was for legal strategy.
Rath said the council had gone into executive session four times to discuss Hillcrest already this year.
“Executive session is a cop out to talk about stuff and come back,” he said. “You said you needed 30 days, we’re now 45 days into 30 days with no plan.”
The council stayed in open session and made the motion and vote to close Hillcrest.
“This surely could’ve come out a lot different,” Rath said at Friday’s meeting. “I don’t know why you’re giving up hope today.”
After the meeting, community members again discussed the possibility of recalling the mayor, upset with the lack of transparency over Hillcrest’s financial situation, possible abuse of power and authority, ongoing mismanagement and failure in administrative oversight.
“You all work for us,” Barker told the council Friday.
