Champaign County Board To Consider Choices For Nursing Home’s Future

The Champaign County Board will discuss three possible referendum questions concerning its financially strapped county nursing home at a special meeting Tuesday evening.  The choices are --- help the nursing home with a special sales tax or a property tax increase ….  or give the county permission to sell or close the facility. One of the three proposals could wind up on the ballot in the April 4th local elections.

County Board Chairman Pius Weibel says he would prefer keeping the nursing home open, in part because closing it would be a complicated process. But he says the nursing home is facing difficult challenges right now --- made worse by the state budget impasse, which has slowed the share of its money that comes from the state.

"The nursing home is not making money, and certainly not able to pay off vendors", said Weibel. "The list of unpaid vendor bills is probably getting bigger, unfortunately … and there’s concern about just how long can the nursing home operate without a serious influx of revenue from some source.”

A consultant’s report on the Champaign County Nursing Home’s current finances could shed more light on its options. Weibel says that report won’t be available until Tuesday night’s special county board meeting, which begins at 6 pm at the Brookens Center in Urbana. It will be followed by the county board's regularly scheduled Committee of the Whole meeting for Finance, Justice & Social Services and Policy, Personnel & Appointments.