LAWRENCE COUNTY Commissioners split over date to sell Hill View nursing home

By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- The Lawrence County nursing home will become a private entity one week earlier than expected.
But one county commissioner thinks the move is a bad idea and will cost the county thousands of dollars.
Commissioner Ed Fosnaught disagreed with a proposal to move the sale date for Hill View Manor from July 7 to June 30.
Commissioners Roger DeCarbo and Brian Burick agreed to the date change.
Fosnaught argued against the change because the county is bound by its agreement with Laborer's District Council of Western Pennsylvania, Local 964, to pay employee benefits and wages through July 7.
"It seems to me by closing earlier, we are closing off revenues," Fosnaught said.
He estimated the county would lose about $70,000 by closing the deal a week early.
DeCarbo said the date was changed to make bookkeeping easier for the county.
"I say we cut our losses as soon as possible," DeCarbo said.
Notification requirement
County commissioners had wanted to sell the nursing home in January but were stymied when union officials reminded them that they had to give employees 180 days' notice of any sale.
Sylvan Heights Realty Partners is buying the nursing home and surrounding land. Company officials have said they intend to continue operating Hill View Manor as a nursing home and hope to develop the surrounding property into office complexes and housing.
In other business, the county now requires that all subsidized day-care workers take a pediatric first-aid course. The change will mostly affect those who provide in-home day care, Burick said.
Those receiving subsidized day-care payments must be certified in pediatric first-aid in three months. Free classes will be offered by the county agency that disburses the money.