LIBERTY Nursing home closes to clean up damage
Patients were moved to other facilities, along with some employees.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
LIBERTY -- Flood damage resulting from the heavy rains that hit the Hubbard-Liberty area earlier this month has forced the owner of Colonial Manor Nursing Home to temporarily close the 100-bed facility.
Doug Morris, a spokesman for Maryland-based Integrated Health Services, which owns Colonial Manor, said patients have been transferred to the company's five other nursing homes in the area: Boardman Community Care Center in Mahoning County; and Horizon Village Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Ridge Crest Care Center, Imperial Skilled Care Center, and Washington Square, all in the Warren area of Trumbull County.
Morris said some of the home's 85 full- and part-time employees have been given the opportunity to work at other IHS facilities, and others were laid off.
IHS plans to repair the water damage and reopen Colonial Manor, he said, and at that time laid-off employees will be called back to work.
Pending questions
However, Morris said he did not know how serious the damage is, how long renovations will take, how much the work will cost or how soon the center at 196 Colonial Drive will reopen.
"It's just too soon to answer those questions," he said. "We haven't really determined the extent of the damage."
The union representing Colonial House workers is displeased with the IHS plan to have Colonial Manor employees reapply for jobs in its other facilities.
Albert Jackson, district representative for the Service Employees International Union, said the union has asked for a meeting with company officials to challenge the plan to start Colonial Manor workers off as new employees if they move to other IHS locations. That would mean pay cuts of as much as $6 per hour.
SEIU District 1199 represents about 60 nurse assistants, dietary workers, housekeeping workers and practical nurses at the facility.
IHS operates nursing and rehabilitation facilities in 22 states, including 17 in Ohio.
vinarsky@vindy.com