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Show Nursing Home Balloting Set for Next Tuesday Grand County residents go to the polls nextTues-day, nextTues-day, June 5, to cast their vote either for or against a nursing home forGrand County. The bond election elec-tion is for $950,000, the estimated cost of constructing con-structing a 50 bed facility. facil-ity. . Payment of the bonds, according to the Nursing Nurs-ing Home Committee, will be made through Federal Revenue Sharing, 75, for as long as those monies are available. Any unpaid balance not covered by Revenue Sharing would come from property tax. At this time, it is anticipated an-ticipated that 1 mill will be added to the property tax levy for the nursing home bond, and if Revenue Rev-enue Sharing is phased out, an additional 3 mills would be added later. Members of the Nursing Nurs-ing Home Committee this week issued a summary of their reasons for recommending rec-ommending that the facility fa-cility be constructed. They pointed out that at this time there are 14 patients in nursing homes hom-es who list their address as Grand County. The committee then determined deter-mined that there are another an-other 6 to 10 individuals in the community currently cur-rently who would probably probab-ly be in a nursing home 'f we had one. After observing the requirements re-quirements of other facilities, facil-ities, the Committee has determined that 50 beds are the number needed for Grand County, to care for present and future needs. They have stated that they were advised not to construct a facility that could not be enlarged. They also pointed out that building costs are rising from 10 to 15 per cent per year. Cost of the facility, to include beds, kitchen equipment, heating, air conditioning, and all other facets is estimated to be about $950,000. This figure fig-ure was arrived at after a discussion with the architect ar-chitect about quality of material used in construction, con-struction, types of services ser-vices offered, etc. The Committee members mem-bers stated that the facility facil-ity cannot be constructed in conjunction with the hospital for a number of reasons, particularly that of precluding the leasing of the facility to a private pri-vate firm. A joint facility facil-ity could hamper expansion expan-sion of either one in future fu-ture years, also, they concluded. Concerning the question ques-tion of why space in the hospital cannot be used for nursing home pa-tients, pa-tients, the Committee stated that the 12patients allowed under a current Federal program is not enough to meet current needs. They also pointed out that the current hospital hos-pital has no recreation area, no hobby area, no dining area that could be used for nursing home patients and no place to participate actively in a social group. Dr. Jerry Peters, an opponent op-ponent of the measure, pointed out this week that in his opinion, there is insufficient need at this time to justify the expenditure. expen-diture. "Staffing, with trained personnel would be difficult. Competition with'the hospital which is already intermittently staffed would only create more difficulty." He also al-so pointed out that school funds are currently low and perhaps the monies for the nursing home would be better spent on schools at this time. |