In Tuesday’s meeting in Merrill, the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors decided to not hold a referendum to increase taxes to fund the Pine Crest Nursing Home.
The vote was 13 to 9.
The rejected plan was to raise the amount collected in property taxes by the county by $3,000,000 per year for ten years.
That would have cost property owners about 85-dollars per 100-thousand dollars of equalized value.
Pine Crest Nursing Home is a 180-bed skilled nursing facility in Merrill that’s currently owned by Lincoln County.
Right now, they only house about 80 residents on average, due to understaffing and an inability to meet wage standards.
The nursing home has been plagued by financial problems for the past several decades, with mounting repairs needed.
In Tuesday’s meeting, county supervisors considered selling the facility with conditions, increasing taxes by $4.5 million instead of $3 million, or turning it over to Marathon County’s control.
In public comments, Lincoln County residents, like Irene Mehlos, urged the county not to sell the facility to private owners.
“If Pine Crest is sold to a private for profit entity, the county and the people will lose any say or over what happens to it in the future,” said Mehlos. “Down the road, there is no guarantee it will remain a skilled nursing home, much less a five star rated one when it does not bring the desired profit.”
County clerk Chris Marlowe said that if they received a high enough offer, they would probably sell.
“I think there's a misconception out there that we want to shut the nursing home down,” said Marlowe. “But it's far from the truth. It's the opposite of the truth. We want to make sure it's there for the long haul.”
He explained that the bottom line was that the county just couldn’t afford the facility.
They needed to prioritize mandatory spending, since the nursing home is technically classified as an additional service that Lincoln County provides, he said.
Marlowe was hopeful that by privatizing Pine Crest, the nursing home could stay in business and workers may even see higher wages.
For now, the future of the Pine Crest Nursing home remains unresolved.
