SHULLSBURG — In the month of October, every Thursday is Manor Thursday, as representatives of Lafayette County will be barnstorming to different communities to inform the public about the upcoming referendum questions related to Lafayette Manor.

The first meeting was held Oct. 1 in Belmont, and last Thursday the second meeting was held in Shullsburg.

Emceeing the events is Allison Taylor, Lafayette County Economic Development Director. Taylor went over the points of the referendum as derived by the County Board back in August when they approved two questions for the voters.

The first question is whether or not to approve a $45.5 million project to build a new nursing home at the site of the former Memorial Hospital of Lafayette County.

The second question is to shift the current Lafayette Manor off of the current county tax levy for four years, giving up to $500,000 to cover any expenses not covered by revenues.

The second meeting in Shullsburg was much better attended than the first one in Belmont — the senior center/council chambers of the Townsend Center was nearly full of residents from both Shullsburg and Benton who came to learn more about the ballot items.

Maintenance Director Tom Curry gave the crowd details about the current state of Lafayette Manor — while they pass inspection, much of that is due to being grandfathered in to older rules for the 1961 facility.

A closer look would show an infrastructure rotting — cast iron pipes are embedded into concrete in the building, making replacing such items when they fail difficult.

The windows are singleton’s-pane, and have issues. The two elevators have mechanical issues. Almost all of the institution’s five roof vent fans are original.

“I have to call my grandpa to know what something is,“ Curry quipped, noting that many of the items do not have available replacements.

Curry said another item is that the space for each room is much smaller than what a modern facility is supposed to have, which is one of the many issues that get in the way of simply remodeling the current Manor.

Kyle Kraemer, consultant who has been working with the county in an unofficial capacity, noted the current code for rooms would be 25 percent larger than the current Lafayette Manor rooms.

If remodeled, the facility would come under modern building codes, and would be insufficient.

That was one thing audience member Mary Gensler agreed with. Gensler had worked at one point in Lafayette Manor, and noted the space and conditions. With that knowledge, Gentler voiced her concern that the current chosen site — the former hospital grounds — was too small for a proper new manor, and preferred one of the earlier choices of outside of Darlington, where there would be more than 10 acres of space, as opposed to two acres of the MHLC site.

One of the reasons brought up for utilizing the MHLC property was that the county already owns the land, but the bigger issue was utility installation — building outside the city would mean extending water and sewer lines, and also likely mean installing a lift station due to the topography.

That cost would add an additional $4 million to the project before even handling acquisition of land.

After meandering on different ideas, including referring back to ideas about incorporating childcare onto the manor campus, County Supervisor Jed Gant remarked the real crux of the first question was whether or not the county would have a skilled nursing home within its borders.

Gant noted no firm is looking to come to the county to have a nursing home, as there is only one in the county. In surrounding counties, there has been a reduction of nursing homes — four have closed, two reduced in size — and if the citizens wanted to continue to have a place older residents could go, it would mean building a new nursing home.

“Do you or don’t you want a manor?” Gant asked.

A member of the crowd wondered about a memory care unit, to which Manor Administrator Katrina Houtakker noted that while they do not have a specific memory unit, the Manor handles several residents who have those issues, and they make sure to look at placements and oversight for them.

Audience member Jeff Russell wondered if the county would come back and ask for more funds after this referendum, if they found out more was needed for the project.

Supervisor Scott Pedley stated that the county would not need to come back and ask for more money — this would cover a new manor project.

“We are residents of the county,” Supervisor Lee Gill added, noting they pay taxes and would not increase their own taxes any more than the people in the audience would.

Curry jumped back in and noted the amount of care the staff give to the residents, and he would like to see a building reflective of the care people get at Lafayette Manor.