TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
In a season of deja vu - at least where Lincoln County’s Pine Crest Nursing Home is concerned - the Lincoln County Board will again consider a resolution to sell the County-owned facility at their Sept. 17, 2024, regular Board of Supervisors meeting. The meeting will be held next Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Lincoln County Service Center. The Agenda for next week’s meeting has not yet been released. However, at the Sept. 4 Administrative & Legislative (A&L) Committee meeting, after convening in closed session to discuss Pine Crest sale negotiations, the Committee reconvened into open session and took action on two items.
First, Lincoln County Board District 18 Supervisor Ken Wickham made a motion that the A&L Committee draft a resolution for consideration by the full County Board that would authorize the A&L Committee to pursue the sale of Pine Crest Nursing Home and the Health and Human Services Building, also known as the Social Services Building. That motion was seconded by District 22 Supervisor Greg Hartwig and then unanimously carried on a voice vote.
Second, District 2 Supervisor Lori Anderson-Malm made a motion to direct the Administrative Coordinator to communicate with the brokers involved regarding the next steps. That motion was seconded by Wickham and also carried unanimously on a voice vote.
No other details from the closed session were released and an open records request for copies of the correspondence or other communications from the buyers who have expressed interest in purchasing Pine Crest was denied, because sharing information pertaining to possible contract negotiations could negatively impact such negotiations.
District 7 Supervisor Donald Dunphy filed a lawsuit against Lincoln County Administrative Coordinator Renee Krueger last month because she also denied his open records request for the same information and for the same reasons. During the A&L Committee meeting, during Krueger’s monthly report, she referred to the lawsuit and also advised that due to potential conflict of interest, outside legal counsel (not the County’s Corporation Counsel) will again need to be retained in reference to the lawsuit, at a cost of approximately $340 per hour, and that the County’s legal budget has already been exceeded as a result of Dunphy’s prior lawsuit. Dunphy’s prior suit, filed in May, ultimately resulted in the termination of the previous contract - the Asset Purchase Agreement - between Merrill Campus LLC and Senior Management Inc., and Lincoln County, the fulfillment of which would have resulted in the sale and closing on the purchase at the end of this month (as extended). Merrill Campus LLC and Senior Management Inc. has indicated a continued interest in purchasing the facility.
“Merrill is a wonderful town. Pine Crest is a great skilled nursing facility with wonderful staff,” said Grant and Andrea Thayer in early July after the sale fell through. The Thayers are the faces behind Merrill Campus LLC and Senior Management Inc., and own Care & Rehab, with seven other skilled nursing and assisted living facilities in Wisconsin. They said they knew “that Pine Crest would make a great management opportunity for Care & Rehab, but not in a purchasing way because of the current lawsuit.” Dunphy dismissed that lawsuit on July 29.
The resolution now goes to the full Lincoln County Board to determine whether the County will move forward with a new effort to sell Pine Crest Nursing Home.
Some members of the People for Pine Crest group were in attendance at the A&L Committee meeting, and their group is collecting signatures via an online petition to express opposition to any sale.
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