MERCER COUNTY Board makes third payment on facility

The county has already made more than $500,000 in payments.
MERCER, Pa. -- Mercer County commissioners have made a third loan payment for the financially ailing Woodland Place, but a county official says the nursing home's financial outlook is improving.
County Fiscal Administrator John Logan confirmed Friday that a $216,355 payment was made Aug. 31.
The county must make the loan payments, which the facility is unable to make, because in 2001, the three commissioners who were on the board at that time guaranteed an $8.8 million loan, through the sale of bonds, for the nonprofit corporation, which bought the former county nursing home in 1998. Commissioner Olivia Lazor is the only commissioner of those three who is still on the board.
The two payments already made by the county total $528,946.
Escrow account
Logan said the county is using the $3.5 million proceeds from the sale of the nursing home to Woodland Place as an escrow account from which the loan payments are being made. He said that until Woodland Place "is self-sustaining," he would not recommend that the cash reserve be made available to any other capital projects.
"I'm expecting that we have an extended period of time that we need to be prepared to support the bond guarantee," he added.
Logan said he has received indications, however, that the nursing home's financial outlook is improving. The facility is in the middle of a review by a consultant, he said, adding, "I've had financial reports, and they are definitely in better shape than a year ago." The county has asked them to develop a multiyear operational and financial plan, he said.
He added that he expects the nursing home to eventually pay the county back in full for all the loan payments.