STEVENS POINT − Portage County is one step closer to the sale of its nearly 95-year-old skilled nursing care facility.
A joint meeting of three Portage County Board committees approved Dec. 9 both an Asset Purchase Agreement and an Operations Transfer Agreement to facilitate the sale of the Portage County Health Care Center to a subsidiary of California-based The Ensign Group Inc.
The Space and Properties Committee, the Health Care Center Committee and an Ad Hoc Committee related to the facility’s sale heard public comments from about a half dozen Portage County residents and discussed the matter among themselves before the Ad Hoc and Space and Properties committees voted to recommend the sale to the full County Board.
The move serves as the potential next-to-last official step needed from a voting body to sell the skilled nursing facility and a near ending of the local discussion of a decades-long, nationwide trend of divestiture of publicly owned nursing facilities following increases in cost to provide health care and development of alternative care services.
A final decision on the sale is expected to be made by the full County Board on Dec. 16.
Here’s what else you need to know.
What is the sale price?
Portage County will receive $2.7 million for the sale of its skilled nursing home located at 825 Whiting Ave. from Ensign subsidiary Timms Hill Health Holdings LLC, a Nevada-based company. Timms Hill will then lease the property to another Ensign subsidiary, Galena Healthcare LLC, another Nevada-based company.
The purchase agreement also requires Ensign or its subsidiaries to invest at least $1.3 million into renovations of the skilled nursing facility within the first two years of ownership. The over 16 acres of property the facility currently occupies will be split into at least two parcels so the county will maintain ownership of the portion containing a parking lot of the adjacent Ruth Gilfrey Center, or the county’s Health and Human Services building. The exact property divisions are yet to be decided, according to Ray Reser, County Board chairperson and District 25 supervisor.
Ensign’s offer is nearly $1 million more than an offer the county received for the facility in March 2024 for $1.8 million.
What happened with referenda to support the facility?
Portage County voters previously approved through referendum $5.6 million over four years in 2018 and $90 million over 20 years in 2022 to fund operations and build a new $20 million facility after the current facility was found to need more than just renovations to provide quality and efficient skilled nursing service.
Further financial analysis amid increasing health care standards and inflation of the U.S. dollar during the COVID-19 pandemic raised questions about the facility’s long-term financial feasibility and led to a vote to pause construction efforts during a Jan. 24, 2023, joint meeting between the Space and Properties and Health Care Center committees.
The five members of the Space and Properties Committee voted unanimously to pause ongoing building and architectural design work to “allow appropriate county board standing committees and county staff and officials to identify, review, and evaluate the Portage County Health Care Center’s operational sustainability concerns,” according to the meeting minutes. Health Care Center Committee members did not vote on the item during the meeting.
Has the county collected or spent any funds related to these referenda?
Funds approved by the 2018 referendum were levied and used as allowed by the referendum language, according to Portage County financial statements. Both the 2018 and 2022 referenda language allowed funds to be used for operational expenses.
Over $6 million levied from county property taxpayers as a result of the 2022 referendum has accrued in an account, according to the financial statements. These funds will be returned to county taxpayers through a process yet to be established by the state Department of Revenue, Reser previously told a Stevens Point Journal reporter.
The funds were levied as a result of the county’s regular budgeting process, Reser explained. The Health Care Center’s annual budgeting process revealed operating deficits for which funds were levied to fill the gaps. However, other revenues exceeded expectations and resulted in the referendum-approved dollars not being spent.
Why does the county own a skilled nursing facility?
Portage County residents began offering care services for poor and infirm residents of the county in 1877 through the election of “Superintendents of the poor.” Eventually, a “poor farm” was established near Amherst Junction “where indigenous members of the county might be cared for in old age,” Malcolm Rosholt, local historian, wrote in “Our County Our Story” published in 1959. Residents of the farm raised and sold crops and animal products to supplement revenues from county taxpayers.
A small portion of the county’s poor farm, which burned down in 1920, remains on Lake Drive, about 12 miles east of the current skilled nursing facility. A marker for a mass grave of former county residents remains on the property after the poor farm’s cemetery was plowed over and forgotten by farmers who purchased the land, according to a November 1980 Tomorrow River Times article on the Stevens Point Area Genealogical Society website.
When will the next decision be made on the Health Care Center?
The entire Portage County Board will consider the sale of the Health Care Center to a subsidiary of The Ensign Group at its next regular meeting at 5 p.m. Dec. 16 in the County Board Chambers at 1516 Church St. in Stevens Point.
Erik Pfantz covers local government and education in central Wisconsin for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin and values his background as a rural Wisconsinite. Contact him at epfantz@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Stevens Point Journal: Portage County committees advance proposal to sell Health Care Center
Reporting by Erik Pfantz, Stevens Point Journal / Stevens Point Journal
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