Mercer Co. to make Woodland payment

By MARY GRZEBIENIAK

vindicator correspondent

MERCER, Pa. — Woodland Place is again unable to meet a scheduled Sept. 1 payment on an $8.8 million bond. As a result, Mercer County will again have to pay the $214,260 installment, bringing to $2.6 million the amount the county has spent over the last four years as guarantor of the bond.

But Mercer County Commissioners said Thursday they do not plan to take any drastic measures against the nonprofit nursing facility despite hints last spring that they might do so if the former county nursing home kept failing to meet its payments.

Commissioners said at their meeting Thursday that they will pay the Sept. 1 installment and are working closely with the Woodland Place Board of Directors to improve the situation. Commissioner John Lechner said that “a couple of options” have been eliminated but commissioners will decide on other “choices” by summer’s end.

Last March, commissioners had rejected an “action plan” of money-saving measures submitted by Woodland Place’s board, stating that it was inadequate and did not provide a time frame for repaying the bond. The plan showed that the home could save $244,500 this year by cutting expenses, but bond payments run about $700,000 annually. Woodland Place is also contractually obligated to pay the county back for the loan payments it has made.

Lechner would not say which options have been taken off the table or what plans of action are being considered. Commissioner Kenneth Amman said commissioners are limited in what they can say at this point because of “legal issues.”

Lechner repeated Thursday what commissioners said last spring: that their goal is to keep the home open and retain the jobs at the nursing home at the lowest cost to taxpayers.

County Fiscal Director John Logan said after the meeting that the nursing home has grown financially “healthier” over the past two years. He said occupancy of the 100-bed home now ranges from 92 to 96, compared to 80 at one time, with a resultant stronger revenue picture. He said the problem is the nursing home’s large debt. “We have to fix the capital structure,” he said, explaining this means maximizing the revenue and minimizing the costs of the home.

A previous board of commissioners had guaranteed the bond for the former county nursing home when the facility borrowed money for renovations in 2003. Since then, the county has spent $2.05 million on bond payments while Woodland Place has only been able to come up with $115,000 toward the debt.