By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
For 50 years, Bowling Green Manor has been part of the Bowling Green community, providing care to residents while building relationships that have lasted for generations.
Community members, employees, residents and representatives of HCF Management, the parent company, gathered on Tuesday to celebrate the milestone, reflecting on five decades of service and looking ahead to the next 50 years.
Mary Hinkelman, executive director of the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce, thanked BG Manor for its longtime commitment to the community.
“For 50 years they’ve been here serving this community,” Hinkelman said, recognizing the facility for meeting an important local need and caring for people during times when they need support.
Bowling Green Mayor Mike Aspacher chatted with dozens of the residents prior to the ribbon-cutting ceremony. During the program, he thanked BG Manor employees and recognized the many longtime staff members who have devoted years of service to residents.
“Fifty years is an amazing period of time for this organization to provide such important service to this community,” he said. He noted that the occasion provided an opportunity to pause and recognize the commitment and contributions of the people who have made the facility’s work possible.
That commitment is reflected in the longevity of many of the facility’s employees.
Linda Krotzer, an LPN and intake referral manager, has worked at the facility for 39 years. She began as a floor nurse and went on to work various shifts and roles, including wound care, infection control, medical records and case management before moving into a corporate role.
Today, she helps process referrals from hospitals for skilled nursing and long-term care, handling paperwork and insurance checks as residents enter the facility. BG Manor has 99 beds, and Krotzer said the facility recently had only a handful of openings.
The facility provides both short- and long-term care, with services that include ventilator and tracheostomy care, wound care, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.
For Krotzer, however, her nearly four decades at BG Manor are about much more than a job.
“I absolutely love it. This is home,” she said, describing how the lives of longtime employees have become intertwined with BG Manor and the Bowling Green community. She said employees have married, raised children and built lasting relationships while working together and caring for residents.
HCF Management Vice President of Operations Scott Unverferth, a 26-year employee of the company, also reflected on BG Manor’s history. He said the company began in 1968 and came to Bowling Green 50 years ago, making the local facility one of the company’s early locations. HCF operates 22 locations in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Unverferth said the longevity of BG Manor’s staff is one of the things that makes the facility distinctive.
“This is a facility that we still have the same people who were here 25 years ago, 30 years ago, 40,” he said. “We have an awesome staff. When you come here, it feels like home because you see the same people; you don’t see that a lot in a business like ours.”
He also described HCF’s philosophy as rooted in its small-town beginnings. The company was started by his grandfather in 1968, when there weren’t many long-term care services. The goal was, and continues to be, to care for people in communities where services are needed.
“We are people from small towns,” Unverferth said. “We take care of our people; that’s just what we do.”
The company encourages its leaders and teams to become involved in the communities they serve, including through organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce and local service clubs.
“Bowling Green has served us really well,,” he said. “We want to serve the community too, so it’s important that we are ingrained in the community”
Bowling Green Manor’s current leadership is also looking toward the future.
Riley Miller, who became the facility’s administrator/director in May, said the position has provided a busy introduction to leadership. Miller’s background includes working as an aide and activities director, experiences that continue to shape her approach to her current role.
“Residents are the most important thing to me,” Miller said, emphasizing the importance of maintaining relationships with residents and their families even while managing the many responsibilities of running the facility.
Her interest in senior care began while attending Bowling Green State University, where an introductory gerontology class sparked her interest. She also pointed to her close relationships with her grandparents as an important influence on her decision to work in senior care.
As BG Manor moves beyond its 50th anniversary, Miller said the facility’s goal is to preserve its traditions while continuing to improve.
“We wouldn’t be here without our residents, without our staff,” Miller said. She noted that BG Manor has employees with decades of experience alongside employees who are just beginning their careers. “We’re always getting better. We’re going to keep the same traditions, but we’re always going to continue to improve so we can have another 50 years and celebrate a hundred years eventually.”
Karen Witte has been a resident for eight years and loves everything about life at BG Manor. “I love the people, the activities, especially bingo, and the food,” she said after the ceremony.
BG Manor currently employs about 90 people, including full-time, part-time and contingent employees. Its workforce includes nurses and nurse aides as well as maintenance, laundry and housekeeping staff — roles Miller said are all essential to the facility’s operation.
The anniversary celebration offered a chance to recognize that collective effort — from longtime employees such as Krotzer to newer members of the BG Manor team.
For five decades, BG Manor has been more than a building providing care. Its history has been shaped by the residents who have called it home, the families who have entrusted loved ones to its care, and the employees who have spent years serving them.
As the facility begins its next chapter, its leaders say the goal is to carry those relationships and traditions forward while continuing to grow and improve.
