Laura Lokken, administrator and owner of two Golden Oaks assisted living facilities in the Duluth area, came before the Tofte Town Board on November 10 and said she was interested in pursuing building a similar facility in Tofte.
Lokken, the goddaughter of the late Sheriff John Lyght of Lutsen, said she and her husband loved the North Shore and when she found out that Tofte was interested in developing assisted living for its community, decided to ask the town board what it would like to see built for its residents.
“Would you like a partner in this? Do you want to build this and have someone run it for you? Or do you want this to be a privately run, privately owned facility?” Lokken asked.
Paul James, board chair, said, “We aren’t looking to own or run anything. But we are interested in seeing if this is something that could work for our community.”
Lokken asked if the land near Birch Grove Community Center is still the property the board had considered as a possible site for an assisted living facility and James said it was.
“Does this land need to have infrastructure put in—roads, electrical, water, sewer, etc.?” asked Lokken. And James said yes, but none of that was done yet.
“I have a builder in Duluth, Bob Ryan, who could do this. But I would be interested in having local builders do the work if they are able,” said Lokken, adding that it takes about six months to build a 30-room facility and she would (possibly) start with a 15-bed unit.
“Before we talk too much about that,” said James, “Would you first do a feasibility study to see if this would work here?” adding that the township had one done a couple of years ago, “but it excluded our summer residents who leave for the winter, and we know that some of them would like to retire here if they had a place like this to live in.”
“Absolutely. It’s all about supply and demand. But if you don’t have a facility like this in your community, people needing this will move to Duluth or the Cities. This won’t be a very profitable venture for me, but it will bring good paying jobs to the area,” said Lokken.
With sites in Hermantown and Proctor, Lokken, a nurse by training, said she has 11 years of experience as an owner/operator of Golden Oaks and, with that, she feels she has the experience and expertise to make this work if the residents would use it.
As an advanced assisted living facility, Golden Oaks cares for seniors with extensive health care concerns as compared to individuals just starting at an assisted living life, said Lokken. “We specialize in Alzheimer’s, dementia, diabetes and other advanced health issues,” said Lokken.
“We also assume that the resident can remain at Golden Oaks up to and including the end of life,” added Lokken.
But Lokken suggested that an assisted living facility in Tofte might start out with lower level care, depending on the needs of the residents.
Some of the things offered at Golden Oaks includes wellness clinics and seminars, regular nurse visits, onsite 24/7 staff, certified nursing assistants 24 hours a day, monitoring blood sugar, medication dispensing, social programs, housekeeping, transportation to medical, dental and other reasonable visits, exercise classes, wide variety of leisure activities, and religious/spiritual activities, etc.
Lokken stressed that her facilities were all well staffed, and that wouldn’t change if she built a new center in Tofte.
Because Schroeder and Lutsen have both expressed interest in seeing an assisted living facility built in Tofte, James suggested that Lokken come back and have a meeting with representatives of the communities. Lokken agreed, and a meeting will be set in either December or January where Lokken’s proposal and suggestions will be explored further.
Leave a Reply