For 24 years Jasper Sunrise Village provided assisted and independent living options for area senior citizens.
On Sept. 15 the 25-unit facility will close.
Fifteen current residents at the Village and 17-18 full- and part-time workers were notified July 11 that the facility could no longer financially operate.
“For residents who have to leave, the news was hard — this was their home,” said Dave Smith, Jasper, president of the Economic Development Authority, that oversees the facility’s operations for the city of Jasper.
“A lot of tears have been shed.”
Smith served on the Jasper EDA when members decided in 1996 to remodel the former elementary school on the east edge of Jasper into an assisted living and independent living facility.
For the past six months, Smith and the other EDA members reached out to agencies for a potential transfer of ownership and other options to keep the facility open.
None of the ideas panned out.
Jasper EDA board members voted Monday night, July 10, to close Sunrise Village.
“COVID played a big portion of the closure decision because people didn’t want to move around,” said Jasper Mayor Mike Baustian.
More residents meant more revenue for the Village, which for several years teetered in the upper teens until recently when numbers dropped to the current 15 residents.
Smith said historically the Village operates best with an average of 20 residents.
With the coronavirus reaching the area in March, new residents looking into the Village opted to stay where they were out of health concerns.
Smith said the Village has stayed free of COVID-19.
“One part-time worker has COVID, but nothing in the facility,” he said. “The staff member had not been in when tested positive.”
The Jasper EDA will continue to operate the two townhouses in Jasper for eligible senior citizens.
Any decisions on what to do with the Sunrise Village building will occur at a later date.
“We are going to let the dust settle,” Smith said.