DARLINGTON — Consultant Kristin Fish-Peterson told the approximately 60 people assembled in the Lafayette County Multipurpose Building last Tuesday to participate in an informational meeting about the future of Lafayette Manor. “Its a chance for you to ask questions,” she said.
Fish-Peterson, along with her colleague, Dayna Starver from the firm Redevelopment Resources, were brought in to be facilitators for the first of two public meetings on the subject of Lafayette Manor in prelude to the Lafayette County Board deciding about a November referendum question on the future of the only nursing home in the county.
The county board has taken a two-stage look at moving forward with the next Lafayette Manor — the first being this meeting Aug. 11 to give the public detailed information about the basic idea behind a new manor.
This was to give the public information to grasp, while a Aug. 24 meeting, beginning at 5:30 p.m. will be a deeper dive into the options, with more public input on what they want the day before the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors meet to decide just what to bring the voters in November in the form of a referendum.
Most likely, that question will involve asking for the levy to cover the construction and additional expenses on operating a new nursing home.
When looking at the demographics, Fish-Peterson remarked, Lafayette County is dealing with older citizens more than the rest of the state. According to census numbers, those age 65 or older make up 21.2 percent of the population in Lafayette County, which is above both the state and national average, and the fastest growing demographic in the county.
For this first meeting, it was largely a recap of everything that had taken place before that point.
It started with reviewing some of the finer points of the feasibility study conducted by Eppstein Uhen Architects (EUA), which reviewed both properties last year as part of a planning grant the county received.
Originally brought in to assess whether portions of the former Memorial Hospital of Lafayette County could be used as the base for a new nursing home, keeping newer sections while razing others, EUA quickly pivoted their study to completely raze the hospital building, and either replace it with an all-new manor, which would need to be two stories in order to fit within the perimeter of the old hospital.
Under this design, both the former clinic, which is being utilized for the free clinic, and the Lafayette County Health Department office, would remain in place, according to the designs shown last Tuesday.
The county has abandoned any idea of saving the former hospital building — last Monday, as part of the Building and Insurance Committee, that committee voted to disconnect all utilities of the building. The county had been running minimal services to the building to keep it from deteriorating, but with the costs in the thousands each month, the committee voted to disconnect the facility, and plans are to tear it down.
County Board Chair Jack Sauer stated that he received an initial estimate from Kyle Kraemer of Kraemer Bros. Construction that the cost to raze the former hospital would be approximately $500,000.
“I thought it would be three times that,” Sauer quipped after the meeting.
“The hospital is going away,” Fish-Peterson stated.
Will it be for a new manor? While EUA’s plans showed a manor fitting on the site with the clinic and health department staying put, it had been stated at previous meetings to also take both those buildings down, as well as the home on the site if they wanted to have sufficient space for a nursing home.
Sauer told the crowd the county would like to retain the health department office.
The informational meeting appeared to be implying a better use for the former Memorial Hospital site would be for residential development.
As part of their study, EUA drew up three different residential developments for the hospital site — stacked duplexes, multi-family units, or townhouses.
A member of the audience wondered if the housing would be low income residents, or for seniors.
“That has not been discussed,” Lafayette County Development Corporation Director Allison Taylor responded, noting they have not talked to any developer about the idea.
Sauer was hoping to have more information at the Aug. 24 meeting.
The idea of increasing housing is nothing new, as Lafayette County, like many rural areas in the state is dealing with a lack of housing inventory that may eventually lead to a population implosion — businesses will not expand or relocate here, leading to fewer jobs, and less working-age people living and working within the county.
During the presentation, it was noted that 68.5 percent of all houses in the county were built before 1978.
Fish-Peterson said the county would be in a better position for future development of the former hospital site if they demolished the whole building rather than try to sell the land with the structure still on it.
Because of the existing infrastructure going to the former hospital, the cost of building at that site would be less than if the county were to purchase and run utilities to the Greg White property, the other site the county is looking at. With the White site, the county would be paying an estimated $26,000 an acre for 15 acres, although hey would have options to buy more property for additional development.
The county is working on rough estimates of the cost of a nursing home, receiving an estimate of $44.5 million to build a nursing home at the former hospital site from Kyle Kraemer of Kraemer Bros. Construction, who Sauer contacted last fall after the EUA study came in.
The county has no formal agreement with Kraemer Bros. on this project, with Sauer stating that he expects the county would go through an interview process to hire a general contractor sometime in the future.
Sauer noted how weary he is for the process of hiring a firm to oversee the construction of the project, still dealing with litigation on the Lafayette Hospital and Clinic project.
“I am a bit leery of going with anyone we don’t know,” Sauer stated.
As far as word that he is hearing, Sauer is surprised he has not heard much for the public on issues like the site for the nursing home, with some people adamant to use the former hospital site, while others just as adamant to build at a new location.
One thing Sauer warned about was the idea of letting the nursing home go.
In the region, there are very few private nursing homes — many firms operate assisted living homes, but nursing homes, there are few around.
When other governments have moved to eliminate government-run nursing homes, like in Sauk City or Freeport, citizens came forward with litigation to stop the moves.
When a person in the audience asked about the size of the nursing home, and whether to stay with 50, several people spoke up about how Lafayette Manor reduced in size several times, but that once it gives up those beds inter number, they are likely never able to return, given funding for those beds gets reallocated to other parts of the state.
What happens with the manor?
Shullsburg Police Chief Josh Jerry wondered what would happen to the existing manor when it is replaced.
Sauer explained that the current nursing home would be conducive to be remodeled into apartments, and would be enticing to potential developers given the recent projects the county has done on the facility, having had to replace the roof after it was leaking and a replacement of the heating system after it failed.
Some issues with redevelopment are that while the county has the building, the property underneath the building is owned by the City of Darlington, and is supposed to revert back to the city if the manor closed or moved.
“We need to work with them,” Sauer said of the city.
Childcare not completely gone
One of the ideas that Sauer floated when the idea of a new manor was being floated was to incorporate space in any new facility with childcare, given the need in the county and rural Wisconsin for childcare.
Sauer had envisioned a space where residents of the manor could actively see children in the childcare program.
Sauer stated he raised the idea with some officials when talking about the New Horizon Academy, which is slated to open on the Southwest Health Center campus in Platteville next month.
Sauer was told by officials that any childcare project would be an uphill slog — Southwest Health lobbied for three years for funding, getting $2 million from the State of Wisconsin.
Still, even with the funding in place, in order to make it affordable, the project needs subsidies, and has tried to get local businesses to sponsor spots at the childcare facility, which would be available for their workers if they needed them, but they would still pay if they didn’t utilize the spot.
Approximately 30 youth are signed up for the opening in September.
Considering the effort to keep the project afloat before it opens, Sauer said the idea of childcare being anywhere around a new facility is slight, but he still keeps it in the back of his mind.
“I never did forget about it.”