One Nation, Under God
One Nation, Under God
Eugenia "Gene" Taylor, front row, middle, donated the entire monies to cover the entire cost of for new boilers at the Hi-Line Retirement Center after the heating system stopped working in February. Gene was accompanied by family members at the HLRC last Tuesday. Pictured are Back row (l to r) Cassidy Hope, Mary Mangis, and Becky Green. (Front row, l to r) Warren Taylor, Gene, and Suzanne Koss.
Eugenia "Gene" Taylor presents a check for $116,000 to Hi-Line Retirement Administrator Duane Murray last Tuesday in Malta. The money will go towards purchasing a new boiler for the center.
Sue Hungerford baked a cake in the shape of an old pot bellied stove for a celebration following the check presentations. HLRC residents and family members met in the center's cafeteria for the celebration.
It has been some time since I have taken time to give an update to the community on Hi-Line Retirement Center. Life is good at HLRC. Our daily census remains up, staffing remains good; we made it through flu season without any major outbreaks. Our cash flow has been good; however;,we are still working on paying off old debt, and have not been able to start building a reserve as of yet.
As most of you know, heating and cooling of the building have been a chronic problem for many years. Maintenance had fought to keep the boilers up and running for a long time. On Thursday, February 8, one of the coldest nights of the year the boilers died: (Not just sick, but lights out, party's over, plum dead.)
I am always amazed at the communities support in our times of need. Garett Witmer, Chuck Zanto, Tom Miller, and others showed up to help get heat in the building. Someone posted our need for electric space heaters on social media, and it was announced at the high school basketball game. A short time later the community had bought more electric heaters than we could use. I was intercepting concerned citizens at the front door telling them to take their heaters back home, we had more then we could use.
We made it through those cold February nights with electric space heaters. Our options for a permit fix were to patch up the old boilers at approximately $75,000 or replace with new boilers for about $116,000. After weighing the options, the Board of Directors felt that if there were any way possible ,we should replace the old boilers rather than patch them up.
While the Board of Directors and I were contemplating the best way to fund this urgent need, the chairman of the board, Iris Robinson, and I were summoned to one of our resident's room. To our total surprise, the resident informed us that she, with her family's support, was donating the total sum needed to replace the boilers. WOW! Iris and I were dumbfounded, how blessed we are to live here in Phillips County, and have people like Eugenia "Gene" Taylor, and her family.
Eugenia (Gene) Taylor, a retired Professor Emeritus of Nursing at the University of Minnesota, decided to honor her Phillips County family with a donation to cover the cost of new boilers for the facility.
Gene's parents, Clara and ET Taylor homesteaded south of Malta, where she and her two brothers, Bob and Tom, lived on the homestead and attended Malta High School. Her parents and both brothers lived in Phillips County until their deaths. Family is everything to her, she lived in Minnesota but rode the train "home" as often as she could. When she could no longer live on her own she wanted to be here with her nieces and nephew, the Taylor kids, Suzanne, Becky, Robin, Warren, and Mary.
With this donation, Gene feels she can make a lasting difference for the residents now and others in the future. This decision has put a twinkle in her eye. It truly is better to give than receive.
In other exciting neww at Hi-Line Retirement Center, we have opened a daycare for our staff. Daycare is a much-needed service for our staff.
I am also extremely pleased to let you know that RN Barbara Dunbar has been chosen to receive the 2018 Montana Health Care Association "Commitment to Caring Award" for Director of Nursing of the year. Barbara has worked hard to keep our staffing sufficient, eliminating our need for traveling nurses and CNA's. Due to her hard work, we are once again able to conduct CNA's training in-house. We have trained four CNA's as Certified Medication Techs, one CNA Rehab Aide, and currently have four CNA's enrolled in the LPN program. Barbara will receive a plaque to be presented to her at the awards banquet, Tuesday, March 20, during the MHCA convention at the GranTree in Bozeman. Barbara is a key component of the success we have enjoyed here at HLRC. She is a member of Indian Health Nursing Association, MSU Northern Nursing Advisory Board, and a Montana Special Olympics Nurse/Volunteer. Certified Nurse Assistant Instructor, and Certified Register Resource Nurse Helena College.
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