MERCER COUNTY Commissioners await word on repayment from facility

The next payment on the nursing home's bond debt is in March.
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MERCER, Pa. -- Now that Mercer County commissioners have made a $221,000 payment on Woodland Place's bond debt, they want to know when the nursing home plans to pay them back.
They agreed Thursday to send a letter requesting a meeting with Woodland Place's board of directors to get an answer.
Commissioners had to come up with that Sept. 1 payment because in 2001 they guaranteed the $8.5 million bond for the nonprofit facility, which financed renovations and repairs on the former county nursing home. As part of that agreement, commissioners can now demand repayment of the money.
Commissioner Brian Beader, the only one of the three commissioners who had not been in favor of loaning $1 million to the facility, wanted to push immediately for repayment.
Concerned about default
But the other commissioners -- Olivia Lazor and Michele Brooks -- said if they pressure Woodland Place, it might default on the loan, forcing the county to take over the facility.
Lazor suggested giving Woodland Place a time frame when demanding repayment.
Brooks stated that commissioners used poor judgment in 2001 by co-signing the loan in the first place.
Lazor, who was on that board, replied that no one could predict changes in the law and the financial impact they would have on the nursing home.
Commissioners agreed to send a letter and meet with the Woodland Place board as soon as possible and, according to Brooks, "try to salvage something of this."
Controller Thomas Amundsen said after the meeting that the next payment on the bond debt of about $221,000 is due in March.
How they're made
Payments are made out of an escrow account, which the county established with $3.5 million that Woodland Place paid the county in 2001 toward what it still owed the county for the home.
He said since 2001 only a small amount of the principal has been paid on the $8.8 million loan, and that payments have been mostly on interest.
The loan is structured so that larger "balloon" payments on the principal are due toward the end of the 33-year loan. In 2020, a $975,000 payment is due and in 2031, a $3.2 million principal payment is due.
Lazor and Brooks had wanted to simply extend Woodland Place a loan instead of having to come up with default payments. Earlier this week, however, a visiting judge ruled that it was illegal for the county to loan money to a private entity.