It's a facility that's been in the Gibbon community since the 1950's, but soon, it will close its doors for good.

With 45 employees caring for about 20 residents, the Good Samaritan Society Nursing Home in Gibbon lost hundreds of thousand of dollars the past two years.

Administrator Melissa McCrae says a decrease in the need for skilled nursing is a nation-wide trend as aging Americans look toward assisted living or in-home care.

"It's something that we're exploring as a Good Samaritan organization, but it's really being driven by the client voice," said McCrae. "They want to stay home, so how can we help them do that?"

But McCrae says that doesn't make closing the Gibbon nursing home any easier. She says they're helping residents transition to other facilities, and says skilled nursing centers in the Grand Island and Kearney areas have been lending a helping hand.

"They've really reached out to support to offer living residence options for our families as well as for our employees," said McCrae. "It's been a huge benefit."

McCrae says that most of their employees were not residents of Gibbon, but rather commuted here to work. Still, city officials say the job loss will have a significant impact on the community.

"It's the secondary purchases, not so much the people that live here, but it's buying their food, their gas, their snacks before they leave town, or going out to lunch, things like that," said Gibbon City Administrator Chris Rector. "Any time you eliminate 45 jobs in a community it can be fairly detrimental to any area."

McCrae says employees have been writing "love notes" - lists of things residents like or dislike so care providers at their new homes can make them more comfortable. But she says it's still hard to face closing day.

"We have some folks who are saying 'you know, I'm really excited because I feel like God has really opened a new door for me, things I had never thought about I'm considering now,' but that's only one side," she said. "The other side is this is my family, I work with people that I love, and I'm really going to miss that."

McCrae says many of Gibbon's employees will be going to work for other Good Samaritan Society facilities in the area. The Good Samaritan Society has given the state the required 60-day notice and plans to close the nursing home on March 16th.

Gibbon's assisted living facility - Hearthside College - will remain open.