What should Lafayette County do about the county’s only nursing home?

Members of the Executive Committee are hoping the public will give them guidance prior to a November referendum on the subject, planning to host two open house meetings on the project this summer.

Friday afternoon, the committee discussed the two basic paths they could take related to a future Lafayette Manor. The committee determined that refurbishing the existing manor would not make sense fiscally, as well as would cause a huge disruption of residents for more than a year, requiring a partial or complete moving out of the facility during the reconstruction. So it narrowed the county’s focus to two paths: either create a new manor at the site of Memorial Hospital of Lafayette County, which was vacated last year for the new Lafayette Hospital and Clinic; or build a completely new facility around Darlington.

Members of the committee stated they are focused on staying in Darlington to remain close to the hospital, given the need for emergencies or treatment of the senior population at the manor.

Close, but not too close — the campus for a new manor must be separate from the hospital, as reimbursement rates from Medicare drop if the nursing home is part of the hospital. This differential is why Upland Hills closed their nurse home facility in Dodgeville connected to the hospital.

Allison Taylor, Lafayette County Economic Development Director, presented the committee with the idea of two open house meetings. The first would be informational, detailing the feasibility studies about the manor, explaining the situation, and detailing the two options.

The second meeting would involve a more robust conversation with the public on what options and ideas they favor.

No date has been set for the meetings as of Tuesday afternoon, that evening the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors are expected to talk about the issue at their regular monthly meeting (after the Republican Journal has gone to press. That meeting will be covered in next week’s Republican Journal).

The committee believes utilizing the former hospital site has a number of advantages. For one, it is owned by the county already, and all of the water and sewer utilities are right there.

Using the existing campus would be a cost savings, but it also limits the ability to spread sections onto the campus.

One common statement is that in order for the county to retain space for any future assisted living section, it would require the new manor to have at least one portion to be two floors, and the cost and limitations of things like elevator maintenance is something maintenance staff would like to avoid.

Taylor, who lives adjacent to the former hospital, thinks the property has positives for future development in different ways, and believes if they didn’t develop the manor there, other housing, like senior condos, would also work.

“There is potential for that site, either way,” Taylor remarked, although it would likely mean county involvement. “We would have to be the ones making it happen.”

They may not have to do it alone. Organizations like SWCap are working on in-fill housing projects in the region, starting with homes in Lancaster utilizing properties owned by the organization, and having property adjacent to existing utilities would be desirable.

During the committee meeting, the group also briefly discussed a half dozen properties they think may be suitable for a new manor complex which would provide space for expansion.

Some of the properties were within the city limits, others were outside of Darlington.

If the county chooses a property outside of the City of Darlington, they may have to annex it into the city limits in order to connect to the city water and sewer utilities.

On their preliminary assessments on repurposing the existing MHLC property, or building on a new parcel, Kraemer Brothers did not factor in the cost of installing two wells (one pressurized for sprinklers) as well as wastewater treatment facility, into their estimates.

The cost of installing those systems, as well as maintaining them, would push up both the building and operational costs of the complex.

Currently, all water and sewer connections for the City of Darlington are within the city limits, according to the City of Darlington.

In neighboring Grant County, that county’s nursing home, Orchard Manor, sits outside of the City of Lancaster city limits, and when the current structure was being built in the late 1990s, the county and city entered a developer’s agreement for water service. The county and city are currently working on adding a second line create a water loop, to guarantee continuous service as the complex also contains the county’s jail.

Grant County also abandoned the wastewater treatment facility, and connected to the City of Lancaster for sewer service, citing increased costs to update and maintain the treatment facility.

Members of the committee looked over the different parcels, and debated what would be prudent for this project.

County board Chair Jack Sauer quipped that while they need to think of the future, they also need to look at the county’s bottom line. “That is easy to do when you have a lot of money, tough to do when you have to ask the people for money.”

“We do have to be fiscally responsible,” Jed Gant added.

Sauer said he would follow up with the landowners to find out what parcels were feasible, and what likely were not up for sale, so that they could reduce down the options to two or three at the county board meeting Tuesday.

The group also talked about relaying to the public the importance of having this facility in the county.

Lafayette Manor is the only nursing home in the county, and while private entities are operating assisted living centers (with a new one just breaking ground) nursing homes are few and far between.

Committee member Scott Pedley wanted to make sure any information session included the list of payroll for the staff at the manor, employing those people in the county as opposed to those jobs being elsewhere.

Pedley noted that when it comes to certain areas, there are not firms looking to create entities within Lafayette County’s borders. “No one is knocking on our door to build a hospital, no one is knocking on our door to build a manor.”

Sauer agreed. “There are some things we don’t do, no one will and those dollars go to other counties.”