Champaign Democrat Joshua Hartke is resigning from the Champaign County Board to take a job in Colorado.

Champaign County has already hired a firm to broker the sale of the Champaign County Nursing Home. But Democrats blocked the formal call for potential buyers in October, when the proposal failed on a mostly party-line 11-11 tie, with Pattsi Petrie (D-Champaign) joining Republicans in supporting it.. On Tuesday night (Jan. 9th), the county board will look at the proposal again. 

2017 was the year that Champaign County voters did not come to the aid of the county nursing home. Voters last April rejected a tax increase to help pay for the facility, and gave the county board permission to consider selling it. But the battle over the nursing home’s future continues.

The Champaign County Board voted 13-8 (with one member absent) Tuesday night to approve a nearly $129.7 million budget for Fiscal Year 2018. But officials say the budget is likely to be amended to deal with the county’s financially strapped nursing home.

The Champaign County Board took a step Tuesday night towards a possible sale of the county nursing home, by voting to authorize their county administrator to seek a broker to facilitate the sale. County Board members in a committee-of-the-whole meeting as the Finance Committee voted 15 to 5 to authorize the issuing of a “Request for Information” or RFI, advertising for a broker to facilitate the sale or transfer of the financially strapped nursing home to a private owner.