Commissioners still talking about Lutheran Home
By MIKE CORN
WaKEENEY -- The task of buying a nursing home moves slow, Trego County commissioners are learning.
And expensive.
Commissioners on Monday continue to wait for the resolution, a legal document that is needed to get the ball rolling on the county's purchase of the financially troubled Lutheran Home.
Because the resolution was not in hand, commissioners had no choice but to continue discussion on the issue until the end of the month, when it meets to approve the county's payroll.
With the delayed resolution, the task of conducting a mail-ballot election also will be pushed back. That date is still uncertain, depending on when everything is approved and the secretary of state's office can give its seal of approval.
County Commission Chairman Herb Schwartzkopf bemoaned the need to delay the issue yet again, but said that was preferable to rushing things along and causing problems.
"I have a problem with the whole thing," Commissioner Lanny Fabrizius said, adding that he is now hearing from people who don't want the county in the business of running a nursing home.
Fabrizius took some flak for that comment, as well as a letter to the editor published last week in the Western Kansas World. In the letter, Fabrizius explained why he voted against moving ahead with a bond election for the county to purchase the home.
As it stands, the county is still looking at conducting a bond election seeking $350,000 for the purchase of the home and construction of a new Alzheimer's wing. That cost, however, likely will grow because the $50,000 cost associated with the wing is only an estimate and does not include engineering costs.
Schwartzkopf said the county is looking at issuing bonds for a 10-year period, allowing for a fairly rapid payoff in the event property valuations and the tax money it generates happens to go down in the future.
Combined with money that will be needed to be repaid from no-fund tax warrants, the annual cost could top $90,000 a year.
"That would be more than 2 mills," Fabrizius said. "You can see this is going to cost the taxpayers a million dollars before this is done."
Even if the bond vote increases to $375,000, Schwartzkopf said he wants all of the costs to be public.
"I want to be up front with the people," he said. "I don't like hidden costs. If this thing is going to pass, the taxpayers need to know all the particulars."
Because Commissioner Dean Papes wasn't at Monday's meeting, the nursing home discussion was primarily between Fabrizius and Schwartzkopf.
Fabrizius even said that he's concerned the county might be getting ahead of itself in planning for an expansion.
"It's not even ours," he said.
And he voiced concern that there might be other items that need money, such as additional staff or higher wages.
"The list goes on and on," Fabrizius said.
"Right now, it's going to cost about 2 mills," Schwartzkopf said.
"Or more," Fabrizius added.
The exchange brought concern from the handful of people attending the meeting.
There is a lack of optimism about the future of the facility and the county's move to take it over, said observer John Franklin.
"If you lose this, you're not just losing the 40 people who work there," he said. "You've got spouses there and kids going to school."
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