LAWRENCE COUNTY Commissioners agree to delay Hillview debate

The two commissioners-elect did not attend the meeting.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- The debate over what to do with the county nursing home will continue for another week.
County Commissioner Brian Burick agreed to wait an additional seven days before taking a vote on whether to close the ailing facility.
Burick proposed last Thursday, with the support of Commissioner Roger DeCarbo, to start the process of closing Hill View Manor.
Commissioner Ed Fosnaught opposed the plan and asked during Tuesday's meeting that the matter be tabled.
Burick agreed, only to allow more comment on the matter and see if there is another alternative to help the failing home and its drain on the county budget.
"I reached my decision after eight years in office. Seven more days to discuss and debate this issue ... it will affect many lives," he said.
The number of residents has steadily declined this year and is now at 57. The facility is licensed to care for more than 130.
Many contend the commissioners' failed attempt to sell the facility to a private buyer caused the population to drop. Burick proposed closing the home after determining there would be no sale.
In favor of closing
More than 30 people attended Tuesday's commission meeting with people speaking for and against closing the home.
Advocates for people with disabilities urged commissioners to continue the process of closing the facility, contending there are changes in state and federal funding coming that will make it even harder to operate nursing homes.
Linda Costal, a New Castle woman with cystic fibrosis who serves on the Statewide Independent Living Council, said the state is moving toward more programs that will keep people in their homes.
"The census of Hill View will continue to decline no matter who runs it," she said. "Dumping more of our local tax dollars into Hill View Manor is like dumping them into a black hole. There will never be an end to what is needed."
"Hill View Manor needs capital improvements beyond the scope of their ability to generate the revenue needed to make mandated changes," said Joy Carlin, a coordinator for Tripil Service, a nonprofit agency that serves the disabled. Carlin noted that she once worked at the facility and her mother-in-law was at one time a resident.
"I feel Hill View is a wonderful place whose time has come to an end," she said.
Carlin added that there are open beds for Hill View's patient and jobs for its employees at eight other nursing homes in Lawrence County.
Opposed to closing
But employees and family members of residents and former residents advocated for keeping the home open.
"My mother lived in that home and they took good care of her," said William Watkins of Shenango Township. "Instead of causing a ruckus, why don't you just leave."
Burick and DeCarbo are leaving office on Jan. 4.
Cindy Jarvis of New Castle, a 13-year Hill View employee, said she is concerned about moving the patients. She said moving them from one floor to another affects them, but moving to a new nursing facility would be worse.
Vern Eppinger, a former Lawrence County commissioner, whose mother lives at Hill View Manor, questioned whether the current board understands the costs associated with closing the home.
He said there would be $500,000 in unemployment costs to laid off workers, as well as continued utility costs for the building. He told commissioners to leave the decision to the new board taking office next year.
Burick outlined the closing costs in his proposal last week to close the facility, budgeting enough money to get the home through its proposed March 31 closing. He said if the home remains open and does not get any more patients, the county will have to subsidize it with $1.1 million next year.
The county is already facing a deficit and commissioners have proposed a 1-mill real estate tax increase for 2004.
Question
Burick questioned where newly the elected commissioners, Steve Craig and Dan Vogler, were on Tuesday. He said eight years ago after he and Fosnaught were elected, but before taking office, they attended a public meeting to ask commissioners not to enter into a service contract.
"If [Craig and Vogler] wanted to have input, why aren't they here? Why aren't they here?" Burick said.
Craig and Vogler have both said they don't have enough information about the home to decide if it should be closed.
Commissioners will vote on the matter next Tuesday.
cioffi@vindy.com