The Kenyon Sunset Home will be closing by November 7th and has notified residents that they have sixty days to find an alternative place to live and employees that they will be out of a job.
The Kenyon Sunset Home opened in 1949 and was organized as a 501c3 non-profit organization in 1988 under the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It is currently listed as a female owned facility with forty-five beds, fifteen as assisted living, twelve as skilled nursing and eight as memory care. They report an annual payroll of $1.85 million with 76 employees.
At this time there are only twenty-seven residents, which is not enough to fund the operation of the facility, and so the decision was made and approval granted on September 8th ,from the Minnesota State Board of Health, to close the Kenyon Sunset Home . Chairman David Hellstern commented that the trend for caring for the aged at home, supplemented by programs like meals on wheels and house visits by nursing staff to care for elderly residents, has reduced occupancy at the Kenyon Sunset Home. The decision to close the Kenyon Sunset Home was made because of financial reasons and was not due to staffing issues. It is expected that the residents and staff will relocate to elderly care facilities in neighboring communities.
The Northfield Hospital and Clinic has staffed the Kenyon Clinic, located beside the Kenyon Sunset Home for the last two years, and is a separate entity. The Northfield Hospital’s Kenyon Clinic serves the full community of Kenyon and will states that they will continue to provide the finest health care from the current location.
