MERCER COUNTY Court date scheduled over nursing-home loan

The case will be heard by a visiting judge from Pike County.
MERCER, Pa. -- The court is wasting no time setting up a hearing in the legal battle between the Mercer County commissioners and the Mercer County controller over a loan to the Woodland Place nursing home.
The case won't be heard by any of the four Mercer County Common Pleas judges but has been assigned to a visiting jurist, Judge Harold Thomson of Pike County.
He's set a hearing on the dispute for 9:30 a.m. Monday, but Pete Morin, Mercer County court administrator, said that date might not hold.
The commissioners filed a complaint Tuesday seeking a court order forcing Controller Tom Amundsen to make a $304,050 payment on a $1 million loan from the county to Woodland Place to complete construction of independent living units at the private institution on Pa. Route 58.
No response filed
Amundsen hadn't filed a response to the complaint as of this morning and Thomson may want to delay the hearing few days to give the controller time to file a response, Morin said.
Two of the three county commissioners approved the loan, but Amundsen refused to pay it, claiming the commissioners don't have the authority to make such a loan to a private corporation.
The commissioners argue that Woodland Place, the former county nursing home, is designated to provide medical care to dependents of the county and the county still has a statutory responsibility for seeing that service provided.
The county also backed an $8.8 million bond issue for Woodland Place in 2002 and, if the loan isn't paid, the county could be responsible for paying off that debt if Woodland Place defaults on the bond payments, commissioners said.
Francis J. Fornelli, Mercer County president judge, asked that a visiting judge be assigned to hear the case to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest.