Trego County Commission will redo nursing home talks Friday
By MIKE CORN
WaKEENEY -- In the beginning, the Trego County Commission discussed the sale of its pending purchase of the Luthern Nursing Home in WaKeeney behind closed doors.
That was improper under the state's Open Meetings Act, according to what Trego Country Attorney Dave Harding learned from the Kansas Attorney General's office.
They could talk in closed session about purchasing real estate, Harding was told, but they should not have talked about its impending sale.
As a result, Harding said, they are hoping to retrace their steps in the series of events that came about in reaching a tentative agreement for the sale of the nursing home to Utah-based Deseret Health Group.
As a result, Dennis Cunningham, the Deseret representative who met with commissioners to discuss the sale, will be back in WaKeeney on Friday to discuss the issue once again.
He will meet with commissioners in open session at 11 a.m.
Commissioners already had been scheduled to meet that day, as they do on the last day of each month, to handle payroll duties.
"I guess what we'll try to do is retrace our steps," Harding said of the meeting.
Cunningham's Deseret group is looking to purchase the Lutheran Nursing Home from Trego County for $300,000. Trego County is prepared to buy the facility from Peoples Bank in Pratt, trustee for the bond company for $250,000.
Concern about the impropriety of the discussions with Deseret during a closed session came about at last week's commission meeting, immediately after an emotional hour-long meeting between commissioners and Lutheran Home employees, residents and spouses.
It was at that time Charles Tidball, whose wife Cathy works at the facility, asked about the meetings.
Follow-up questions prompted Harding to contact the AG's office.
Tidball welcomed the news that Cunningham was returning to WaKeeney to talk about Deseret's purchase of the facility.
"I'm delighted to hear it that he's coming back," Tidball said Thursday. "This is the guy to ask the hard questions."
There will be plenty of hard questions, if last week's meeting is any indication.
Then, employees wanted to know about issues at other Deseret-owned facilities in the state, its financial situation and its plans for the Lutheran Nursing home.
People attending the meeting talked about a series of problems at other facilities owned by the Utah company and expressed concerns the WaKeeney facility would be squeezed to ensure profitability.
Commissioners said they had been assured no jobs would be lost, but conceded they would have no control once the sale is completed.
Tidball said he had been planning on pursuing efforts to turn back the clock on the sale decision, even though no paperwork has been signed.
"I've got a lot of questions," he said. "I think we need answers on these things."