Custer Cares team named Custer County Chronicle Citizens of the Year

It’s not often a group of citizens can say they revived (and likely improved) a business that had been declared dead two years earlier.
But that’s exactly what Custer Cares did.
The group had a great deal of help along the way, but the core four of Rick Wheeler, Janet Boyer, Monica McGowan and Mike Tennyson spent the better part of the last two years dealing with voluminous paperwork, taking a crash course in nursing home operations, negotiating, wading through legal morass and overcoming numerous setbacks to bring the Custer Care and Rehab Center to Custer, allowing the City of Custer to once again have a much-needed nursing home.
For all of their work, the four have been named the Custer County Chronicle Citizens of the Year.
In November 2021 Custer Economic Development Corp. convened a meeting with Kristy Wagner of Dakota Resources and various leaders of the community representing city and county government, Custer Schools, the YMCA, Monument Health Custer Hospital, Custer Chamber of Commerce and Custer County Housing and Redevelopment Commission. Presentations were made by these and other entities about their “economic status” and value to the community. At that meeting, Monument Health stated it was in good financial position, but less than ten days later, the Monument Health Board of Directors voted to close the nursing home in Custer. 1.
“That news caused deep concern among the residents of the community,” McGowan said. “It affected so many long standing members of the city and county.”
In those immediate days after the announcement of the closure of the nursing home, concerned citizens met twice at the Custer County Courthouse to state their concerns and explore whatever actions the community and county might take to avoid that closure. The shared stated concerns was the immediate questions, where will I be able to place my loved one? How far will I have to travel to see them? Who can we contact and implore not to close the nursing home?
After Monument Health announced it was closing its nursing home (in the same building the Custer Care and Rehab Center is now located in) Brown  was in constant contact with Monument Health, “trying everything and getting nowhere” in regards to getting the board to change its mind.
By the end of January he knew he needed to enlist help. That’s when he called local businesswoman Janet Boyer.
From there, the seed for Custer Cares was planted.
Brown was integral in bringing the facility back as well, and a handful of other citizens got involved at the outset of the quest to bring a nursing home back. Among those were former mayor Gary Lipp, Marci O’Connell, Dr. Cleve Trimble, Dr. Joy Falkenburg and Custer City Council member Todd Pechota.
Boyer has been a resident of Custer since 1982 and with late husband Brian remodeled and revived numerous businesses in Custer. After Brian’s death, she continued that work and owns and operates Mt. Rushmore Brewing Co. She remains very involved in a variety of committees and boards, not only in Custer but throughout the Black Hills. As a supporter and friend of Brown, it was a logical “ask” for him to appoint Janet to lead this group and find, organize and facilitate professionals and like-minded citizens in the community cause to re-open the nursing home.
“Why I reached out to Janet? I have know Janet and Brian since I moved here, and through the years I have considered them friends,”  Brown said. “When this came up with the nursing home, I was figuring this was going to need some outside help. Outside meaning not city officials. Having community members involved just seemed the better avenue. They would have far more freedom. We talked with Janet and hand picked a handful of community members to come together and make a game plan to get the nursing home back up. It’s no surprise Janet was all in. She was up for the challenge.”
Tennyson, a life-long resident of Custer, has been involved, owned and operated numerous successful businesses in the area. Through his work in real estate, construction and civic organizations, he has been recognized and received numerous awards for those endeavors. He serves on a variety of non-profit, corporate and banking boards of directors and has established connections throughout the state. This is his second time being named the Chronicle’s Citizen of the Year, having also received the honor in 2016.
Wheeler, also a life-long resident of Custer, has deep connections to the community as well as personal family history at the nursing home. He served for 20 years in Custer County law enforcement, 11 of those years as Custer County Sheriff. He and wife Wanda have owned and operated a family business in Custer since 1979. He serves on several community boards, such as the Custer County Courthouse Museum, curating the history of the community and maintaining the original Courthouse Building on Mt. Rushmore Road.
McGowan, a South Dakota native, permanently moved back to Custer in 2018. Her family moved to Custer in 1964 when her dad, Elmer Flatt, was named Manager at Black Hills Electric Cooperative, a position he held until his retirement in 1984. In 1986, Elmer was elected to serve as the South Dakota State Representative for District 30 and served four terms in the state legislature.
McGowan learned civic and community involvement from her parents’ actions and examples. After her graduation from Chadron State College, she spent the next 40 years outside of the state, but always kept her connections to Custer. Once back in Custer, she became involved in numerous city, county and state issues. As a relative returning “new-comer” to Custer, she stepped forward to become actively involved in efforts to re-open the nursing home.
Thus began the search, research, negotiations and numerous lengthy meetings that spanned more than 22 months. Each member of the task force brought their life experiences and connections to these endeavors, reaching out to members of the community, business and professional associates, medical experts, board members of various corporate and nonprofit organizations, banking executives and legal counsel. Each member of the task force shared their connections and experiences, be it in personal corporate connections, non-profit board experience, business acumen or overarching community concern.
The task force, Brown and members of the Custer City Council recognized that, while they had connections and determination to prevail, they all agreed that they were not equipped nor inclined to “run a nursing home.” The task force contacted various health care networks to explore the possibility of their involvement in re-opening the nursing home in Custer. There were challenges and reservations for those corporations in embarking on such a venture in a rural health community such as Custer, even though the aging population and demographics showed a growing, desperate need. Regular news reports chronicled closures of assisted living and nursing homes across the state.
As every possible organization or corporation was identified, explored, contacted and declined, for a variety of reasons, to re-open a senior skilled nursing care facility in Custer, Caring Professionals emerged.
Brown learned of Caring Professionals from Jeff Prior, and gave them a call and talked with Chad Stroschein, principal owner of Caring Professionals. He learned through Prior that Caring Professionals had expressed an interest in operating a nursing home in Custer.
“I was very excited there was a company out there that was doing this sort of thing,” Brown said.
It was May 3 of last year the City of Custer and Monument Health signed an agreement that saw the nursing home facility at 1065 Montgomery Street become the property of the city, managed by Custer Cares and operated by Caring Professionals, a company based out of Dell Rapids that manages several such facilities around the state.
The reward for all of the hard work came last month when the facility welcomed in its first residents.
“It has been a long, circuitous journey filled with challenges, obstacles and problem-solving strategies that tested the members of the task force at just about every turn,” McGowan said. “That task force evolved to become a South Dakota nonprofit, Custer Cares, and its members, along with Caring Professionals, are committed to establishing a positive culture of caring for our chronologically enhanced population, not only in the community of Custer but throughout the Black Hills and western region of South Dakota.”
Congratulations to Custer Cares from the community and all of us for their endeavors and Citizen of the Year award! Well done.