Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Lutheran Home Administrators and staff were all decked out in 1960s' fashion during the anniversary celebration in a throwback to the year the facility was built. Pictured, from left to right: Melanie Elverud, Cathy Bowman, Tressa Lesmeister, Kim Jensrud, Ruth Braaten and Bonnie Dauenhauer. Courtesy photo.
Rev. Allan Turmo, First Lutheran Church, is shown at left breaking ground for LHGS on June 15, 1962. At right are Milo Throlson, Chester Schmid, Hans Wollebeck, Thor Logan, Leslie Treffry, James Williams, Wayne Paulsberg, and Stanley Skadberg. Taken from the June 21, 1962 edition of the Transcript.
A local institution rich with history in New Rockford recently celebrated a milestone anniversary.
The Lutheran Home of the Good Shepherd (LHGS), New Rockford's skilled nursing and assisted living facility, has now been providing much needed care to their residents for 60 years.
They celebrated the milestone with a dessert social on Sunday, July 23, where individuals could celebrate and reminisce about the institution's history and importance to the region.
Sixty years ago, the New Rockford Transcript covered the LHGS and its construction very closely, providing a detailed history to look back on today.
According to an article published in the Transcript on September 12, 1963, plans for the Lutheran Home of the Good Shepherd were first initiated by a group of eight local men back in 1958.
The men were trustees of the First Lutheran Church in New Rockford who recognized the magnitude of the project and solicited the cooperation of 19 neighboring congregations.
One city block in New Rockford was purchased for the building site in 1959 at a cost of just $1, and the city block immediately south was purchased a year later for the same price. Also in 1959, a committee was chosen to name the facility, and "Lutheran Home of the Good Shepherd" was chosen.
Local fund campaigns were subsequently conducted, and they received a 46 percent federal Hill-Burton grant that allowed the group to finally open bids in May, 1962.
The official groundbreaking for the facility took place just a month later, and their first resident, Mrs. Emma Klindworth, was admitted on August 30, 1963. The construction cost of the project was approximately $660,000.
The home's first administrator was Wayne Paulsberg, and the first director of nursing was Mrs. Paulsberg.
A formal dedication of the LHGS was held just a few weeks later in September, which drew significant guest speakers and a crowd of over 800 people. Among the speakers were North Dakota Governor William Guy and Pastor John M. Mason from the American Lutheran Headquarters in Minneapolis, M.N.
"Governor Guy expressed appreciation to the area for accepting its responsibility in providing for the needs of its older citizens," states a Transcript article from September 19, 1963. "He said three years ago N. Dak. needed at least one thousand more beds for nursing patients. Since then projects such as the Lutheran Home of the Good Shepherd have helped to lessen that number."
The LHGS has been providing much needed care to senior citizens and those that require long-term care ever since.
Their service would eventually expand even further in 1981 with a 28-bed addition, and expand yet again with the construction of the Heritage House in 1996. They also acquired the Westview Apartments in the year 2000.
Even excluding the major additions, the LHGS continued to improve and update over the years. The facility now features the Paulsberg Memorial Courtyard, as well as a new chapel, employee daycare unit, family visitation rooms and enclosed walkway connecting the Heritage House to the main facility.
A portion of the building is even being used to house a clinic for the Dakota Regional Medical Center.
All totaled, the LHGS offers an incredible service to New Rockford, at a time when small towns are struggling to retain similarly important cornerstones of their community. But there's no guarantee the LHGS will be around forever.
The current administrator of LHGS, Kim Jensrud, said it's important now more than ever to support the Lutheran Home as they battle to find and retain adequate staffing.
"We have to use a lot of contract agency," said Jensrud, "and that contract agency is really hurting our bottom line. We really really really need the support of the community and the surrounding area to continue to offer care for our people."
Employment applications are available at lhgs.org for those interested, and Jensrud added that donations can be dropped off in person or by mail. Additionally, the LHGS is currently doing a project to replace their old generators, for which temporary repairs are no longer possible.
Funding assistance is being requested and applied for to help fund the more than $400,000 project, but community donations are also being accepted and would be very appreciated, said Jensrud.
"It seems like if we don't get the support from the community, the community kind of falls apart," she added. "In our rural communities we just kind of all have to stick together and really support each other."
