Published: July 02, 2009 10:42 pm      

Money from county nursing home sale in bank

CUMBERLAND — It might have been a day late, but it was not a dollar short.

Allegany County Attorney Bill Rudd said Thursday the sale of the county nursing home to Allegany HealthCare Group LLC had been completed Wednesday and that the purchase price of $8 million had been collected.

“The money’s in the bank,” Rudd said of the transaction, announced in March and expected to be completed by close of business Tuesday.

“We’re no longer in the nursing home business,” said County Commissioner Bob Hutcheson.

County Commissioner Dale Lewis wished success for the new owners, which include Dr. Scott Rifkin, Bill Freas of Rehab First in Cumberland, local physicians Roy Carls and Gregg Wolff, local attorney Paul Kelly and Rhode Island-based Gilbane Development Co.

“We are pleased to fulfill the terms of the nursing home sale as agreed and look forward to working with the employees and residents of the facility toward a common goal of continued quality care and expanded health care services for the community,” Freas said in a news release.

Cumberland resident Herb Broll asked the commissioners to consider lowering the residential property tax rate in the next year and use the $8 million to cover any loss of revenue.

Broll, of Pennsylvania Avenue, said he now pays more in county taxes than city taxes and doesn’t benefit from any of the services provided by county government.

Rudd countered that Broll does benefit from many of the entities funded by Allegany County, including education, the health department, the detention center and the court system. Broll rejected using or benefiting from any of those agencies and said he doesn’t have children in the local school system.

Broll’s argument might have been for naught because the $8 million already has been earmarked for other items.

Nearly $2.5 million is being set aside for post-retirement health insurance claims, for which nursing home staff members who were county employees through Wednesday are eligible until 2039.

Another $472,000 is to pay off a 2004 public improvement bond, and nearly that much is to be paid to nursing home employees for accrued vacation and sick time.

The commissioners also set aside about $900,000 for the next state pension system payment, projected workers’ compensation claims that might not be filed until after the sale, and contingency payables such as Medicare and Medicaid settlements and insurance payments.

Nearly $1 million is being used to fund a conversion to a new health insurance plan, and another $800,000 is to fund certain post-retirement health benefits in accordance with new federal accounting standards.

Another $400,000 is to be equally divided between funding a pension plan for the county’s volunteer firefighters and fiscal 2010 capital projects.

The commissioners are expected to use nearly 70 percent of the remaining $1.1 million to replenish the money they took from the county’s Rainy Day Fund to balance the current fiscal year’s budget.

Budget cuts including $285,000 from the Allegany County Board of Education and $75,000 for Allegany College of Maryland are both expected to be restored.

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.