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Owner of nursing home facilities considers options in Canfield
By kalea hall
canfield
The developer of well-known area nursing-home and assisted-living facilities has four options in mind for the future of 18.6 acres he obtained in Canfield Township for a nursing-home facility.
Mahoning County commissioners recently turned down the annexation from the township to the city for the purpose of building a Windsor House Inc. Nursing Home.
Although another option is for the township and the city to come to an agreement for water and sewer services, the majority of city officials are not interested in the idea of providing services without annexation.
“Right now, we are exploring our options,” said John Masternick, owner and founder of the Girard-based Windsor House.
Masternick asked the commissioners to approve the annexation to the city at the beginning of February. But there is a unique situation with the state ownership of a roadway between the two pieces of land.
“We can attempt to build on that location with well and septic, we can attempt to re-annex the property, we can attempt to move that facility [to Columbiana or Trumbull County], or we can just abandon the project altogether,” Masternick said. “It’s not a project we have to do — it is a project we would like to do.”
Canfield Township trustees devised an agreement with the city for the property, but city officials were not in favor of it. Township Trustee Marie Izzo Cartwright said the township was not in favor of annexation and proposed the agreement with the city as an alternative.
“I was hoping we would be able to sit down with the city and have some discussion,” Cartwright said.
The proposed economic development agreement required the city to provide police protection, road maintenance, water supply and sanitary-sewer service. The township would continue to pay half of the cost for the Cardinal Joint Fire District. The township would collect real-estate taxes from the land, but it would be owned by the city. Both entities would share the 1 percent city income-tax paid by the nursing- home employees.
At the Feb. 5 Canfield City Council meeting, Masternick asked council to reach an agreement of some sort with the township so he would not have to nix the project.
“The market is there because there are no nursing homes in Canfield,” Masternick said. “It would be one of the nicest nursing homes in the state of Ohio.”
The nursing home would be a 72-bed facility with private rooms. It would bring an estimated 75 full-time jobs to the area, Masternick said.
City Manager Joe Warino said the majority of council decided against a Joint Economic Development District (JEDD) with the township, which the city has never entered into before. In the past, the city always has stood its ground on not providing services without annexation.
“At this point, there is no counter negotiation [with the township],” Warino said.
Council President Steve Rogers said he wanted to “work it out” with the township, but that does not seem to be a possibility.
“It is not fair,” Rogers said. “It is not right. I would love to work something out, but it is too hard to. There really isn’t much to work out.”
Masternick operates 11 nursing homes and assisted-living facilities and employs about 2,000 employees, mostly in the Valley. He would like to add another facility in Canfield, but he does not want “to get caught in a fight between two political entities.”
“I am a developer,” he said. “I will develop somewhere else.”