Funding Unanimously Approved

By Dylan Marsh
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
UNITY — After significant planning and discussion, elected officials representing Sullivan County voted unanimously to approve funding for the Sullivan County Nursing Home.

The bond, which would come to $26 million, would go towards a proposed renovation of the nursing home. The final cost of the renovation project is estimated to total between $57 million and $63 million.

The meeting opened with impassioned speeches from the Interim Admin at Sullivan County Health Care Lewis Thibodeau, as well as Vanessa Perron, whose mother passed away while a resident at the nursing home, urging representatives to vote in favor of the $26 million dollar bond. The public forum portion of the meeting also saw Sullivan County Commissioners Joe Osgood and Ben Nelson speak in favor of the proposed bond to move the renovation process along.

“The $26 million is what gets it all started. We can’t move forward without this vote. If you say politics doesn’t enter into this I’d say you aren’t being fully truthful. You have plenty of other things to hammer over each other’s head. The smart political thing to do is to vote this unanimously, you would be able to go to your constituents and say we took care of the most vulnerable of our population,” Nelson had to say to the voting party.

According to Thibodeau and Perron, the renovations are long overdue. Thibodeau asked the council to consider the urgency in the renovation project as spaces are overcrowded, temperatures are in the 80’s due to an issue with air conditioning equipment, and a recent black water pipe rupture has caused hazardous waste water to enter office spaces at the nursing home. Perron also raised concerns of potential lawsuits that could come from patients, or their family members, should the lack of renovations lead to inadequate care.

The funds would come from the Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery Fund, which set aside $50 million for a nursing home infrastructure program. The GOEFER application went live on Tuesday and County Manager Derek Ferland stated that the county would have a few weeks before they were required to submit the form. Should the county be approved for the funding, which representatives at the meeting stated Governor Chris Sununu has his “finger on the scale” in their favor, then the remainder of the “financial stack” would have to be acquired.

The $26 million bond, if approved, will be coming in separate tranches. The first of which would be $20 million and the remainder would come as needed. The EFC suggested that this method would be consistent with their goal of keeping interest rates lower by not accepting more than was needed.

The project is expected to take three years once initiated, and the EFC felt as though there was no need to accept all of the funding at once. According to Ferland, once the funds are approved, they won’t be placed into an account but rather reimbursed to the county for bills paid from the project. Ferland also stated that while there are stipulations for the state forgiving a loan they are standard and usually aren’t forgiven if a project is not complete within a time limit, which he feels won’t be an issue with this project.

The unanimous vote crossed party lines with both parties understanding the importance of helping one of the state’s most vulnerable communities. New Hampshire State Representative Gary Merchant-D, stated that it was Perron’s speech that swayed his yes vote at the meeting. New Hampshire State Representative John Cloutier-D thanked his colleagues for their unanimous vote stating, “this will benefit the entire county. I’m very pleased that we could all come together on this.”

Ferland did state after the meeting that there are many moving parts that rely on the GOEFER funds and, should they not be approved, the county will have to return to the drawing board.