After hours-long meeting, city council OKs proposal for Lincoln senior care home

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A proposal to turn a south Lincoln house into a senior care facility sparked hours of debate at Monday’s city council meeting.

Harbor Senior Care currently has a home near 84th Street and Pioneers Boulevard.

This home acts as a residential senior living facility, where those with Alzheimer’s and dementia live together.

Co-founders Chris Gille and his sister, Katie Hartman, now want to house 12 seniors in a home on 37th and Calvert Streets.

This comes right as the concept of residential senior living has been gaining popularity, according to Gille.

More than 30,000 of these homes exist nationwide.

“It is meeting a gap that exists today in what is offered for most of our seniors,” Gille said. “For most of our seniors, when they get to a certain age where they need a level of care, obviously most people want to be able to stay at home.”

For some, it would be a warm welcome to have another home like this in Lincoln.

“For individuals with Alzheimer’s, it’s about finding moments,” supporter Nicole Sleddens said. “That’s all they have. They only have moments. And it’s about making those moments as joyful as you possibly can. Harbor has given those moments back to my mom again, and I’m very grateful for it.”

Others worry about traffic, parking and more concerns.

“There’s going to be employees, deliveries, service providers, medical, oxygen, pharmacy, clergy, family and, you know, family support,” neighbor Gregg Fusselman said. “They were talking about what a great place it is to visit. There will be a lot of family visiting. I’m concerned about traffic in the neighborhood.”

This home would be in an area surrounded by schools, with both high-volume traffic and little ones nearby.

“When we’re looking at it and we’re looking at everything that we have to live with, it hurts a little bit,” neighbor Todd Thornack said. “And it’s not because we don’t like what they’re doing; it’s because we were worried about how it’s going to change, where we come home and live every day and for our kids.”

The city council has been considering the proposal for some time, and Harbor Senior Care made some adjustments.

After more than four hours of public comment, the council voted to approve the proposal – confident that the look and feel of the neighborhood would not change.

The vote was 5-2 in favor of the proposal.