By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

WaKEENEY -- With little fanfare, Trego County sealed the deal Tuesday, making Trego Manor a reality.

With a quick motion and an equally quick vote, commissioners agreed to sign a check for $249,572 -- Trego County's purchase price of what, before Tuesday, had been the Lutheran Home. The purchase price had been $250,000 but was reduced $428 for half the cost of the title insurance and $8 for the filing fee for the deed.

Trego County commissioners first started talking about the possibility of purchasing the nursing home more than a year ago. As they see-sawed back and forth on the idea, they finally opted to put it to a vote in a mail-in election.

Trego County residents overwhelmingly supported the idea, and the county moved ahead with a $350,000 bond issue -- $250,000 for the purchase price and the rest to be used to build an Alzheimer's unit.

"Now, I'm sure we'll be going ahead with that," said Commissioner Herb Schwartzkopf, who also will serve on a nursing home board. "We had to hold off on that. We can't put the cart before the horse."

As the final acquisition neared, commissioners appointed a board to oversee the nursing home.

"They will be a separate entity to keep them apart from the county," said county counselor Dave Harding, who has shepherded the nursing home acquisition along.

Trego Manor administrator Sandy Cline said they are looking at seven rooms in what will become the Alzheimer's unit, allowing for 10 beds in private and semi-private settings.

As Lutheran Manor, the nursing home had been fraught with problems. Its owner had defaulted on industrial revenue bonds, and control had fallen to the bondholder, a bank in Pratt.

To allow for the sale of the nursing home to Trego County, the bank filed foreclosure proceedings, and the owner, Schlicht Memorial Lutheran Home, waived all its rights to the facility, in exchange for being relieved of any obligations, Harding said.

Because the city of WaKeeney issued the IRBs, it was brought into the mix in the purchase, by turning over the deed to the county. The city of WaKeeney was not obligated for the bonds.

The money, Harding said, will go to the People's State Bank in Pratt.

The foreclosure proceeding also severs an IRS lien that had been levied against the nursing home.

The lien amounted to about $100,000.

"It's a lien against the Schlicht's and any property they own," he said. "It won't come back to the county."