St. Mark’s Lutheran Home is primed to move into the future with a new facility and a new leader.

Construction on the facility’s new multi-million dollar wing is expected to begin early next year after progress stalled because of a loan from 50 years ago, according to board President Marty Helle.

St. Mark’s was unable to move ahead on construction until after making the final payment on the loan earlier this month, but the home wasn’t allowed to pay it off early.

By the time construction begins, St. Mark’s will have a new administrator at the helm. The board of directors hired Chris Schulz to replace Christine Harris as administrator. Harris resigned earlier this year.

St. Mark’s faced controversy in the last year.

The St. Mark’s Family Council and others questioned the facility and Harris at a June 29 meeting after a string of complaints and state reports.

Harris later retired due to personal reasons.

Schulz, who currently heads a facility in Houston, Minn., has years of experience running nursing homes, according to Helle. He also said Schulz will be a charismatic face for the facility.

“I think he really could be a good face for the renovation,” Helle said.

“I think he comes with a great deal of personal integrity,” he added.

St. Mark’s couldn’t proceed with its remodel until a 50-year U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Loan expired earlier this month after the home wasn’t allowed to pay off the debt early.

“It is very, very frustrating,” he said, noting they lost about six-months worth of work.

Regardless, Helle said he’s still excited for the future. After the renovations are complete, St. Mark’s will have  61 nursing home beds — 16 of which will be dedicated to rehabilitation — 25 assisted living apartments and 20 memory care units.

Helle said the new facilities will bring an improved level of care to St. Mark’s.

“It’s to provide better care to our nursing home residents,” Helle said.

Residents need a variety of care levels, Helle said. A growing trend is that most people prefer assisted living to nursing home beds. He also said there’s a growing need for memory care housing, which is quite different than nursing home rooms.

“The model for good memory care is just a very, very different way of caring for people than in a nursing home setting,” Helle said.

Helle described assisted living rooms as having few distractions and workers entering and leaving to keep the residents’ days more peaceful and free of intrusions.

“Nursing homes and memory care are not interchangeable,” he said.

Family Council plans meeting

The St. Mark’s Family Council is planning a meeting at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 29 to continue discussions about how to improve care at the facility.

Following a string of complaints, the family council held a public meeting to discuss concerns stemming from deficiencies and ratings in state reports.

Though no specifics have been set for the meeting, Family Council President Dick Heuton said the council will continue discussing ways to improve care at the home.

“Our main goal is to make our families, relatives and friends have what I guess you would call a pleasant end of life experience living in that home,” he said.

The meeting will be held at St. Mark’s, likely in the living room.

“We want the care to improve,” Heuton said.