Evergreen Pointe Transitional Care has reopened at the county-run Oak Hill senior living community in Waterloo, county commissioners learned this week. 

Oak Hill Administrator Shari Kruep gave a report of the facilities’ statuses at Monday’s Monroe County Board meeting.

Kruep, following the meeting, said Evergreen Pointe had recently closed for a brief time due to low census. The facility has now reopened. 

The goal of Evergreen Pointe’s treatment programs is to assist patients in returning to their active lifestyle.

In her report, Kruep also discussed how the facilities — which also include Magnolia Terrace — have been dealing with an uptick of COVID-19 recently.

She said seven Magnolia Terrace residents and three employees had tested positive for COVID, though, as the report states, all are doing well. 

The facilities at Oak Hill continue to offer vaccinations and boosters to employees.

Kruep reported that the facilities — like other long-term care providers across the country — have experienced strains in certain areas due to the pandemic, particularly when it comes to staffing.

“Our department directors are doing an excellent job at controlling their expenses within their budgetary guidelines,” Kruep said, “but we are still not reached consensus dealing with COVID expenses and ongoing workforce shortages.”

She added that Oak Hill is working on a recruitment campaign for new employees.

Also discussed and approved at Monday’s meeting was an audio visual project intended to renovate the courtroom.

Monroe County Maintenance Director Joe Lewis said the county received just one bid from Zeller Digital Innovations for $57,265.

Payment for these renovations would come from ARPA funding and take care of sound and TV additions to the courtroom.

Improvements for the county’s levee districts were also discussed, as were Maeystown road projects – including the road bypass overlay and shoulders project.

The shoulder project discussion included a reappropriation of funds including $1,122,978 in federal funding, a 10 percent match of that from the county’s Rebuild Illinois bond funds at $124,776, and construction engineering of $10,000 from the county’s matching fund.

Also on the agenda were requests from the Waterloo Optimist Club to close Rogers Street for its annual 5K Run/Walk and from the Knights of Columbus to have their Tootsie Roll collection Sept. 16-17 at the intersection of Rogers Street and Country Club Lane. These requests were approved.