The La Salle County Board discussed the future of the La Salle County Nursing Home in a special Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday morning.
La Salle County attorney Jeremiah Adams presented four options to the committee.
“You can keep it running as is, you can contract out its management, lease it out or sell it,” Adams said. “If you move to sell it, that would likely result in the need for it to be placed on a ballot.”
Adams said that he has worked in situations similar to this involving unions, contracted leadership and personnel, and advised the council on next steps.
Adams also noted the county needs to ensure there is a long-term administrator in place.
“If the idea is you’re going to fully staff and hold that nursing home together for the long term, you have to figure out a way to make it a better place to hold employees long term because for the most part, nobody’s putting their careers in there,” he said.
The current administrator, Bobbi Wade, is on an interim basis until May 4, when a third interim administrator will be at the helm of the nursing home.
“I’ve been a nursing home administrator since 2018 and I’ve been doing interim since 2023,” Wade said. “The La Salle County Nursing Home is one of the best buildings I’ve ever walked into.”
Wade said the biggest challenge she has noticed from her time at the La Salle County Nursing Home is the pay rate for registered nurses, but that the issue can be overcome.
“The problems that they’re facing right now is not something that they can’t overcome if they get the RN pay rates to a good place,” she said. “The people there have compassion and care for those residents. They’re not just there for the paycheck.”
Wade advised the board against going with the contracted management firm.
“I’ve worked with those. From my experience, what will suffer is the care of the residents. They may bring you more money, but at what cost?” she said. “Financially, I don’t think the nursing home is in a terrible place, and if that is the justification for closing it, I don’t think that’s a very good reason.”
The nursing home’s finances were one of the driving factors behind the discussion.
“I think everyone in the county would expect us to make good business decisions, and not emotional ones,” board member Ray Gatza (R-Peru) said. “I think there are a lot of facts that have yet to be presented.”
Gatza mentioned the need for the board to consider the business liability of the home and balance the needs of the entire county with the people associated with the nursing home.
“It’s a shame that this is out in public that we’re even considering closing the nursing home because at this point we’re not even close to that,” he said. “It would be prudent to look at, but not make a quick decision.”
Other board members were less worried about the financial solvency of the nursing home.
“I keep hearing that this has to make money, and I’m not sure it’s the role of government to make money off taxpayers,” Bryan Dose (D-Ottawa) said. “I think we have to provide a great service, and if you break even, terrific.”