Help Us Re-Open St. Johns
Thank you to the family of William (Bill) Lockett and Marjorie H. Benner for your generous donation to Save St. John’s.
Cody Cannon, Lead Pastor Life Pointe Church, Woodland CA
A big thank you to the volunteers!
Clean-Up Day at St. Johns Retirement Village
Meet Gerda Faye from Colusa County. She describes her family roots in St. Johns.
To: Supporters of St. Johns By now you may have heard that the then-current board of SJRV held a special board meeting on May 17. At that meeting, the board elected all seven of our group as the new board members. Lynn Sison and Dan Smith had already submitted their resignations. The remaining board members, Jenee Rawlings, Marilyn Mitchell and Jane Martin then resigned. St. Johns now has a new board which is summarized in the attached leaflet. Although it took us 15 months to get the new board elected, it is now done and time to get to work in reopening the Village. See below https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2023/05/27/seven-new-members-appointed-to-the-st-johns-retirement-village-board-of-directors/ This task will not be simple nor swift. We are basically dealing with a new start up. Although many of the former staff have expressed interest in coming back to work at St. Johns, other details such as reissuance of the state license, full staffing of management and support staff, campus cleanup, opening the kitchen, pursuing an aggressive marketing campaign, fund raising, updating financials, bringing the accounting system current, and dealing with other items such as the Chase bank loan, other payables, insurance, etc. are all areas that will be addressed. This coming week the new board will hold its first meeting, during which officers will be elected. Also on the agenda will be ratification of the settlement agreement relating to the resignation of the former board members, as well as an initial review of crucial areas which need to be addressed immediately. We have scheduled June 17, 8:00 am to noon, as a campus cleanup day. My wife Janet is coordinating this and I would encourage attendance at this event. She can be reached at either 530-383-1030 or jlevers105@gmail.com . The walks need to be swept/blown, the hedges trimmed, lawns mowed, weeds removed, etc. This is certainly not crucial to the formal reopening although it will be an opportunity for our community to gather and get this done. COSTCO has agreed to donate the food that will be served at noon, so no one will go home hungry. If you would like to turn this into a potluck, please coordinate with Janet. As mentioned in the article below, St. Johns is a community treasure that needs ongoing support. By support I mean not only money, but also participation in events, communicating with family members, friends and neighbors to get the word out and, above all else, to treat St. Johns as everyone’s retirement village. In the past, perhaps some have taken St. Johns for granted as it has been in operation for over 55 years. Although the Village is a wonderful place that has served our seniors with care and compassion, as a non-profit senior care operation it is a delicate business enterprise. To survive and prosper it needs our constant, ongoing attention and support. Our success in reopening the Village is our primary goal. However, the involvement of our community, everyone (young, middle aged and elderly) need to be there when needed to keep the Village open and thriving for future generations. I will be sending out separate letters to each community member that pledged to donate once our group was successfully installed as the new board. Although the total of these pledges is around $215,000, the Village is going need additional working capital once we have completed detailed financial forecasts, time line for staffing, campus opening schedule, licensing, marketing plan, etc. We need all hands on deck to make this happen, so please join in to help St. Johns return as the only non-profit senior care facility serving our community. AS YOU GET OLDER, YOU REALLY JUST WANT TO BE SURROUNDED BY GOOD PEOPLE. PEOPLE THAT ARE GOOD FOR YOU, GOOD TO YOU, AND GOOD FOR YOUR SOUL.47chakrasishere
It’s time to rally together! Below is a summary of the current status of our SJRV campaign.
Filling Accepted by Superior Court The Yolo County Superior Court accepted the filing of our second amended complaint. (documents linked below)
We need your help. I would ask that everyone who is receiving this email respond with a list of at least 5 people they have spoken with who are willing to support our efforts. This list should include each contact’s name, address, phone number and email address. Please send this information to info@savestjohns.com or click here to fill out our form to be added to our master mailing list. Maintaining St. Johns Retirement Village as a local non-profit, managed by well known and respected members of our community, is our goal. Your support and those of your family, friends and neighbors, are a crucial component of our efforts. It has now been over a year since a group of concerned members of our community came together to support the reopening of St. Johns Retirement Village. Although the Yolo County board of supervisors withdrew their proposed takeover of the property, the current SJRV board has continued to refuse our proposal to allow a new group of well qualified, respected members of our community to take over this responsibility as new board members. An issue that the current SJRV board has repeatedly maintained is that community support is inadequate, both in terms of time as well as funding, to accomplish our proposal. Although we have raised over $215,000 in financial pledges as well as over 250 signatures on our petition to support our efforts, the current board continues to imply that this support is not significant. Our group intends to continue in our efforts, including our pending litigation with a trial scheduled to occur in April 2023 as well as reaching out to our community to provide citizens with further detail of the current status of the Village and to encourage more aggressive community support. If anyone would like any further information on the above, feel free to contact Cesar Torres at MyCali Designs, cesar@mycalidesigns.com , Susan Richter, srichter1318@gmail.com , or myself.
The fate of St. John's Retirement Village in Woodland remains uncertain now that the county has withdrawn its offer to purchase the site, citing pending litigation involving the property. Back in the spring, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to purchase the 13-acre facility in north Woodland for $2.9 million and use it to provide housing for low-income seniors as well as CalWORKs families and other services. The opportunity came about after St. John's announced in early 2022 that it would be shutting down. For decades, the facility provided an array of services, including senior living, assisted living and memory care, as well as skilled nursing at the Stollwood Convalescent Hospital on the St. John's campus. But the arrival of COVID-19 in 2020 was devastating. Stollwood was the site of the county's worst nursing home outbreak early in the pandemic, with 17 lives lost and many staff and residents sickened. Months later, in the summer of 2020, St. John's announced it was shutting down Stollwood and a year and a half later, announced plans to close the entire campus. The St. John's Board of Directors cited decreased demand for services, a labor shortage and frequent lockdowns during the pandemic in its reasons for closing.
