By Kevin Aldridge
Enquirer staff writer

COLLEGE HILL - The Masonic Eastern Star Community assisted-living and retirement home on West North Bend Road will close Oct. 15 because of financial difficulties.

The decision leaves about 71 residents and 122 employees in search of a new place to live and work.

Jerry Guess, a spokesman for the Ohio Masonic Home, which owns the facility, said a saturation of assisted-living and nursing facilities in the area led to financial losses of more than $1 million a year.

He said operations also were hurt by federal cutbacks in Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements.

"It's a tough, tough thing to do," Guess said. "Nobody likes to take someone's home away, but there was no other alternative. We'd been taking an operational loss on that facility since we acquired it."

Guess said residents would be offered the chance to move into other Ohio Masonic Homes properties in Springfield, Medina or Waterville (near Toledo).

Bonnie Hazelwood, president of the Masonic Eastern Star Community, said employees and residents were devastated by the news of the closing. Many families don't want to move their loved ones to other Masonic homes farther away, she said.

"It's been really a shame. Some families have been here a long time," Hazelwood said. "It's been very difficult on the employees, too, because a lot of other facilities have hiring freezes."

Hazelwood said the nursing home has provided exceptional care for years. The facility received a deficiency-free inspection from the state earlier this year.

The nursing home, formerly known as the Hamilton County Order of the Eastern Star Home, opened in 1923. The Springfield-based Ohio Masonic Home bought the building in 2000 and renamed it.

Guess said plans were to buy land in the area and build a new facility, but nothing affordable became available. He said efforts were made to update the existing home, built in 1966. Even those improvements were dated compared to newer facilities in the area, Guess said.

He said the Ohio Masonic Home plans to open a Masonic Senior Services office in Cincinnati that will assist Masons and their families in finding community-based services that would allow the elderly to stay in their homes rather than nursing facilities.

E-mail kaldridge@enquirer.com