The Community Activity Center referendum was overwhelmingly defeated Tuesday by a vote of 177 yes and 906 no. As of presstime, the results were unofficial and the votes are being canvassed today.

The voting breakdown is as follows:

The proposed $3 million project would have been built connected to the high school and would have housed a large gymnasium with a composite floor suitable for any activity. The building would have also included a kitchen-lunchroom, a wooden-floor area for gymnastics, and an auditorium-performing arts center. Possible upgrades to high school facilities for art, technical education, agriculture and the greenhouse had also been mentioned.

Possible community uses mentioned were art shows, business meetings, conventions and other uses.

With a combination of federal stimulus money and state aid, the building could potentially have been a $7 million building constructed at a cost of $3 million. The cost to residents of the Prairie du Chien School District would have been $200,000 per year for 15 years.

On June 27, the Prairie Maison nursing home will close its doors as staff and residents move to a beautiful new building that incorporates the latest beliefs and technologies regarding senior care. Even the name, Bluff Haven, will be new.

Once vacated, the Prairie Maison building will be sold. Its future use is unknown, but it will not be used as a nursing home, since the new facility will retain the right to the state-allotted number of nursing beds.

Whatever happens to the building, its story as a nursing home deserves to be told. Dates and records are sketchy for the earlier years. However, the assistance of current administrator Mary Jo Wolcott and social services director Nancy Thurn, as well as former staff members Helen Uher, Kay Rider, and Betty Nolan, made it possible to put together a brief history

The story of Prairie Maison actually begins with a different building, the old Beaumont hospital, run by Dr. Farrell. Prairie du Chien Memorial Hospital opened in 1957, and the Beaumont building was purchased by Harold and Bernice Howard and his father, Norbert, as a nursing home.

Helen Uher started working there in 1958, and remembers that it was a small facility, with only about 30 beds.

In 1965, the new building, now known as Prairie Maison, was built and was known as the Convalescent Center. Ruth Dessloch was its administrator and Rider was hired as director of nursing shortly after that.

There were 25 beds on each of the two wings, and one private room. Two more wings were added, and it was during that project that the original contractor "skipped town with the money," Uher recalls, and it sat unfinished until Steiner Construction came in and finished it. That brought it up to a capacity of 174 beds, but Uher does not believe they were ever full.

Sometime around 1980 it was sold to the Seventh Day Adventist church and was renamed Prairie Living Center. During that time, Uher said, it had a beautiful chapel with church services held every day. Deb Henkes of McGregor said she attended church services there from 1980 until 1989, when a new Seventh Day Adventist church was built in Prairie du Chien. When the nursing home was sold, the chapel was removed.

Tom Farrell, son of Dr. Farrell, recalls those years as being peaceful, except for some controversy because the nursing home did not serve pork. That did not sit well with some area farmers, he said.

Once the Seventh Day Adventists sold it, the building changed ownership frequently. Betty Nolan, who worked there from 1982 until 1993, remembers that with each change of ownership came a new administrator and new rules, and she finally quit in frustration. She remembers one time when the building had been closed and locked from the evening, and someone pounded on the door to be let in. It turned out it was the new administrator. The building had been sold and a new administrator appointed without any notification of staff.

Community Health Services purchased the facility in November of 2004, bringing some much-needed stability.

Rider and Uher reflected on some of the changes in nursing homes and nursing home policy. In earlier years, an RN was required only five days a week on the day shift, and aides did just about everything, including dispensing medicine and giving shots.

All the records had to be handwritten. "There were pages and pages of charting," said Rider. As new state laws were passed and regulations changed, "we didn’t take change easily," she said, "but it was usually for the best."

In the early years, aides started working without training, and now they have to attend classes. "That," Uher said, "has made a lot of difference in improving care."

The approach to treatment of residents has also changed from letting people merely sit in their chairs to encouraging them to do as much as they can. The introduction of different therapies has also helped residents maintain their health as much as possible.

Although nursing homes have long had activity directors, Uher said, the difference now is that the community is more involved. Various organizations interact with residents in providing entertainment and activities.

The two women reminisced about some of the challenges in years past. One winter, they said, there was so much snow that staff members were brought in on snowmobiles. While the Highway 18 bridge was closed, Rider said, many staff members lived in Iowa. The hospital and the nursing home got together and hired an airboat to run staff back and forth to work. Later, a ferry was added. Somebody from the nursing home had to meet staff members at the sewage treatment plant at the beginning of their shifts and shuttle them back at the end.

Even after so many years, they remember many of the people for whom they cared. They especially remember some of those who made life interesting.

There was, for example a man in a wheel chair who couldn’t speak, but, said Rider, his wife spoke for both of them and then some. She’d push him down the hallway, talking nonstop, and he’d be sitting there dragging his feet and doing everything he could to make it difficult for her to push the chair. The wife couldn’t see it, said Rider, "but he’d be grinning from ear to ear."

One woman liked to smoke, but for safety reasons had to do so at the nurse’s center where she could be supervised. While there, she entertained everyone by reciting little poems of questionable taste.

One of their residents was a seasonal visitor. The man lived in Lynxville, checked into the nursing home every winter, and then returned to Lynxville for the summer.

Another man sneaked smokes. Staff couldn’t figure out how he managed to light up since no one would give him matches. They finally caught him in the kitchen using the flame of a gas burner.

In summing up those early years, Rider said the nursing home has been an asset to the community. "The number of people cared for, and cared for well, is tremendous." Uher added, "we were always short-staffed in the early years, but I don’t feel anyone was cheated out of good care." Rider worked at the facility for 18 years, and Uher worked there and at the previous building for a total of 35 years.

Wolcott and Thurn talked about Prairie Maison as it exists today and about plans for the June 27 moving day. At present, Prairie Maison has 64 beds in the nursing home division, most of which are full, and 21 in assisted living. When the move takes place, the five residents currently in assisted living will move into the nursing home part of the building.

At Bluff Haven, each resident will be housed in one of two 32-person neighborhoods, each of which is broken down into two 16-person households. That, said Thurn, is the perfect setting for the home-like environment staff hopes to provide. "We feel as staff members we are guests of the people who live here," she said.

The entire staff at Prairie Maison has put a great deal of effort into preparing for Saturday’s move. They worked with two ombudsmen, one a relocation specialist and the other representing patient interests, to provide a step-by-step plan. They have had several meetings with residents and their families, and are training staff for their role in the move.

"In assigning rooms," said Wolcott, "we took into account residents’ needs and desires." Last week, they brought residents over to see their new rooms.

A moving company familiar with long term care programs will move each resident’s belongings, and family members can help set up the room. Opportunity Center is providing three of their vans and drivers to transport the residents, and, added Wolcott, "we have a network of family members and volunteers to assure that no resident goes to the new site unattended."

State Senator Dan Kapanke reported June 18 that the Division of Motor Vehicle (DMV) site in Prairie du Chien will remain open, at least for the present.

Said Kapanke, "According to a representative from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT), there is at present no pending action to close the Prairie du Chien Division of Motor Vehicle site. While the Governor’s budget bill included language that would have closed DMVs, including the one located in Prairie du Chien, this proposal was not included in the Joint Finance Committee’s (JFC) version of the budget or the Assembly version. The State Senate will be deliberating on the JFC’s version of the budget, which retains the statutory language that the DOT must have a presence in each county.

"In addition, the DOT administrator considers the Prairie du Chien DMV to be a vital location in the fact that it is located on the edge of the state and a key point for interstate travel and tourism."

Both the Prairie du Chien Common Council and the Crawford County Board had passed resolutions opposing the closing.

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), if all of the funding comes through as planned, the total of new funding for Couleecap is roughly $5.8 million. But, with no contracts, that is an estimate.  And as a reminder, Couleecap’s usual annual budget is around $7.5 million.

"This (the $5.8 million in federal stimulus money) will be a big expansion to our program," said Couleecap Executive Director Grace Jones. "We will be able to serve a lot more people."

Jones said that Couleecap has not received the federal stimulus money yet and it could be a month or two before they do. She said that the extra funding will be a great one-time, two-year boost, however.

The following is a list of the programs on which the money will be spent.  

Community Services Block Grant (CSBG): $559,000  

The CSBG funds will be used to assist families with a variety of needs including housing, transportation, training, dental care, food, foreclosure assistance, education, employment, crisis and emergency services.

Summer Youth: $181,000 

Sixty-four youth will have summer jobs as a result of funding from the Workforce Development Board. Anyone with questions can call Bonnie Hanson at 608-637-2728.

Weatherization: $4 million

Couleecap will receive an additional $4 million over two years to weatherize another 500 housing units.

Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP): $900,021   

Couleecap is submitting a letter of intent for its four counties for a total of $900,021.  Couleecap will have partners in this application and some sub-contracts.

Couleecap will be the fiscal agent and applicant for the funds.  This funding will be used for people at or below 50 percent of County Median Income (CMI), for costs such as rent assistance, utility assistance, counseling, etc.   

Food program assistance: estimate $200,000

"We have heard from the state that we will have additional assistance for our food programs," said Jones. "This could be a few hundred thousand dollars. We have not heard a final dollar amount yet."

It would help food pantries at Couleecap in Sparta and Prairie du Chien, and food programs and pantries that Couleecap supplies such as the Salvation Army and WAFER in La Crosse, Neighbor for Neighbor in Tomah, the churches in Vernon County (who distribute the food), and the Gays Mills Food Pantry.

The ARRA monies provide Couleecap with a great opportunity to help families in need. "We hope that nationwide, as we see these and other monies released, we begin to see our national economy begin to recover," said Jones.

Jones said that Couleecap is hiring additional workers for its home weatherization program. She noted that if anyone wishes to apply for a job within the weatherization program, or for any other job through Couleecap, they can log onto the website at www.couleecap.org. Interested persons can also e-mail at ContactUs@couleecap.org.

This Saturday, June 27, Prairie du Chien visitors and residents alike will have the opportunity to enjoy a musicfest, artfest, shopfest and foodfest—all together under one name—PrairieFest.

This downtown Prairie du Chien event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. highlights all genres of music, fine arts, shopping and dining along Blackhawk Avenue.

PDRI’s PrairieFest features 10 live bands playing in one-hour segments each on two different stages located at the east and west ends of Blackhawk between Main and Michigan. While a band at one end is playing, a band at the other end will be setting up so the music rotates between east and west stages over the four-block downtown area throughout the day.

Festival-goers will have a wide choice of food and beverages inside the many downtown bars and restaurants, outdoor dining and carnival-type finger foods at various sidewalk vendor food booths. Corn on the cob, crab meat sandwiches, pizza by the slice, tacos and brats are among the many choices.

A unique component to PrairieFest features local artisans demonstrating, showcasing and selling their works of art in booth spaces lining Blackhawk Avenue from Main to Michigan.

Downtown retails stores will offer sidewalk sales and specials. In addition, activities are geared to different ages and interest. A special Kid’s Corner and other projects are planned for children. Adults might enjoy wine tasting, and the whole family can participate in an old-fashioned cake walk.

The event is organized by Prairie du Chien Revitalization, Inc. (PDRI), and, said PDRI director Rogeta Halvorson, they plan to make it an annual event.