Employees of Ramsey Nursing Home, residents and their families gathered Thursday during what they hoped was not the last ?Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon? at the county-owned facility.

Wearing t-shirts that read, ?Families First: Save Ramsey Nursing Home,? they held up signs as Ramsey County commissioners drove into the parking lot to take part in the luncheon. Although commissioners have not announced plans to close the nursing home, they have said a looming operating deficit threatens its future.

?This is such a wonderful facility,? Carla Cincotta said as she joined her grandmother, Loretta Culhane, a resident since January, on the sunny sidewalk in front of the building. Also with them were Carla?s parents and uncle.

?They treat my grandma so well,? Cincotta said. ?As family, it?s a sense of peace and contentment to leave her here and know she?s going to be OK.?

Cincotta said the family worries about her grandmother having to move if the nursing home is closed. She suffers from dementia and is comfortable with her current surroundings.

?I wouldn?t want her to have to go through that adjustment period again,? Cincotta said.

Carla Cincotta and her uncle, Ralph Culhane, join her grandmother, Loretta Culhane, in sending a message to save the Ramsey Nursing Home.

Ramsey Nursing Home, originally started as a ?poor farm? for the indigent, has been a nursing home since the 1950s. Currently, about 200 employees care for 180 residents, many of them with severe medical problems, dementia or Alzheimer?s Disease. Owned and operated by Ramsey County, it serves exclusively county residents.

Earlier this year the County Board announced the nursing home faced a $330,000 deficit. To plug the shortfall, it unilaterally rescinded a $1.02 an hour wage increase for employees and asked the Legislature to increase its daily reimbursement rate by about $5 per patient.

Recently, an arbitrator ordered the wage supplement to be reinstated. AFSCME Locals 8, 151 and 1076, which represent the employees, sought the ruling, saying the money involved had been appropriated by the Legislature in 1998-2000 to raise the wages of nursing home workers.

Tammy Edwards, a nursing assistant at Ramsey for the past five years, said employees are very concerned about the facility?s future. ?We want to be able to work together with management and do what we need to do? to keep it open, she said.

However, cutting wages is not the solution, Edwards said. The employees, most of whom have worked at the home for a decade or more, put in long hours dealing with patients who require a high level of care. At the same time county commissioners were cutting workers? pay, they were seeking a salary cap exemption so they could pay County Manager David Twa more.

In the Legislature, a provision authored by Sen. Chuck Wiger, DFL-North St. Paul, to increase the reimbursement for Ramsey Nursing Home has been included in the Senate budget bill. It is not in the House bill, however.

?I?ve heard from hundreds of people about this,? Wiger noted during debate on the measure. ?If this facility were to close, the impact would be severe -- for patients, relatives, nursing home staff, and the entire community.?

At Thursday?s demonstration, Jerry Franzwa said he looked at many nursing homes before choosing Ramsey for his mother and father. His father died about two years ago, but his mother is still a resident after eight years.

?I know all of the staff,? Franzwa said. ?It takes a special kind of person to do this kind of work.?

Family members and workers said they will continue their campaign through phone calls, letters and e-mails to commissioners and events such as Tuesday?s demonstration.