Letter to the Editor: Nursing home renovations are a must

Nursing home renovations are a must

Last year, the delegation considered a plan to renovate the nursing home. It needs it. We have had structural worries, license eligibility concerns, and multiple plumbing issues. We were initially presented with a plan for around $30 million. That escalated rapidly. It jumped to more than $40 million in pretty short order.

As the estimated costs climbed, a couple of things happened.

I no longer had any faith in the stated true cost of the project. We were told that we had to pay a bunch of money to get a guaranteed maximum price. That told me that whatever I agreed to today, the cost could go up tomorrow. At that point, we stopped deliberations. A reset was needed.

Then, an election happened. The delegation stayed mostly stable, but has two new members who were not tuned in to the history of the project. Also, we started trying to micromanage the project. The delegation is not made up of construction project managers and architects. Our opinions on those details are literally irrelevant. A delegation spends your money, or not. We have to get back to balancing the reality that something must be done, with the tax impact to you. The county has staff who are experts in their fields. They know what the needs are and we should listen to them. I do not believe that it is necessary to get a bunch of consultants or other outside people involved. We know Sullivan County.

I am going to speculate. The price tag, even for what the bare necessities are, is going to be big. I suspect some members do not want to be the ones that say your taxes are going up. Let me take some pressure off of them by going first. I know that serious structural issues exist, and I will vote to fix them. Yes, your county tax will go up when we do it. I hope to minimize that impact, but this is still something we have to do and I understand that this is not a popular position. I am taking it nonetheless.

Why don’t we have a big pile of money to do this? The county had a big pile of money. We’ve been giving it back to you for around 10 years. County costs, like everything else, go up. Your taxes haven’t. We’ve been using the stockpiled reserve money to zero out county taxes. Many advocated for steady increases to maintain these funds. I don’t believe in taking your money unless there is a good reason. Now there is. To ensure that we have a nursing home in the future, we face one of those “every 50 years” scenarios where something major must be done. It may not be politically popular. It may cost some Members votes. It is still the right thing to do.

Steven D. Smith

Sullivan County District 11 Representative