Trenton Board Votes to Close El Dorado
The El Dorado Manor Nursing Home and Assisted Living Center will close.
The Trenton Village Board of Trustees voted to close the facility at a special meeting held Last night (Wednesday) at El Dorado. The vote was 4-yes and 1-abstain.
Meeting notices were posted Monday in Trenton for a Special Meeting for the Trenton Village Board of Trustees and a separate notice for a meeting of the El Dorado Manor Board of Trustees. Both meetings were to take place at El Dorado Manor.
The five member El Dorado Manor Board meeting was not convened because it didn’t have a quorum of members. One member, Helena Janousek recently passed away, Board member Karen Wertz resigned her seat prior to the meeting, and they were scheduled to accept the resignation of Adam Wright at the meeting.
The Trenton Village Board conveyed their meeting with the agenda items of accepting Wright’s resignation, review the El Dorado Manor budget, discuss the future of EL Dorado, and a possible executive session.
The Village Board of Trustees reportedly had an idea going into the meeting that they could be voting on the closing of El Dorado. Trenton Village Board Chairman Cindy Borges said she was hoping that the discussion would bring about a way to not have to take action on closing the facility.
“It was a tough decision that no one wanted to make,” said Borges.
The Village hired a consultant three months ago to look into the finances, staffing, and other issues at El Dorado. The hiring came after more then a year of working with a private company who was interested in coming into the lease or among the facility.
The Village decided not to work with the private company after they had indicated their plans to make staff cuts and in the case that El Dorado would still close, would retain the rights to sell the bed rights of the facility.
The consultant presented information in open session at the special board meeting. Borges said given the information presented the board decided to close El Dorado. She said that financial issues, staffing issues, and not being able to meet regulations and policies were the main reasons for the board’s decision to close.
“We tried, we tried,” said Borges. “The way things are today, after COVID the new regulations, there was no way.” They tried to make the best decision with the residents in mind and the village.
The village could not set a hard date for the closure of the home. The have to find homes for all of the residents before they close. In the meantime, the village is offering a $1,000 retention bonus for the employees who stay to the final closing day.
Borges said there is staff at El Dorado who have gone above and beyond their duties to help keep things working. She said there is a lot of good people working at El Dorado and it was a very difficult decision for the board members to end their jobs. It was something no one on the board took lightly.
At full staff, El Dorado employed 65 people, and was one of the community’s biggest employers.
