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The Mountain View Nursing Home in Ossipee (Courtesy photo)
The silence on the new Strafford County Nursing home is deafening. A big push for a need and now nothing. What happened and why?
Here's a quick review.
First and foremost, the County Commissioners (a 3-0 vote) authorized $60k for a conceptual design. We believe this goes against state statute 24; 24-14-24:15..This County $60k debt obligation had no appropriation for the contract signed in early June 2022.
December 2022, The Democrat majority voted for the first new nursing home plan and authorized a $170 million dollar appropriation for it. The smart Republicans voted against bonding so that plan went no further.
(Appropriation vote is meaningless without money/bonding to back them up)
That same night, the Democrat majority along with three lame duck Republicans voted to bond $6.2 million dollars to keep a new nursing home idea moving forward.
The rest of the Republicans objected because we didn't have any background information on the $6.2 million. Why that number? And, what exactly would the borrowed $6.2 million be used for? These questions were brought up and ignored.
Turns out that the $6.2 million number came from an email, sent at 4 p.m. the same day as the vote, from the architect to George Maglaras, Commissioner Chair. Think about that for a minute or two.
Then, as the site testing for the first design moved forward, we find out that the $170 million dollar location was not buildable because it had more than three acres of wetlands, requiring the Army Corp of Engineers get involved.
This would add a two year plus delay in permitting and $600,000 in fees and fines. So a decision to change the location and design was made. A change known to only a handful of people, mostly unelected bureaucrats. Note: There is limited County land available to be built on as the County placed more than 200 acres into a conservation easement back in 2002.
Agreement signed by then County Commissioners George Maglaras and Ronald Chagnon.
Members of the delegation were not informed of this change until August of 2023, many months later, and only after first reading about it in a local paper. We were kept in the dark about changes since the December vote.
We weren't the only ones. The state agency (GOFERR) that provided a $15.3 million dollar forgivable loan was not informed of changes until September of 2023 which was a breech of contract.
The new project was touted as reduced in size and cost, yet, when all was said and done it was just as much, if not more than the original plan. Both designs offered were based on the jail with long corridors and an
institutional look and feel.
Republican delegation members then found out in December 2023, through a Right to Know request, that a quality 215 bed nursing home could be built for Strafford County for approximately 1/3 of the cost. This was in an April 2022 proposal received by the county, This information was kept from us. The above mentioned proposal was offered by the same architect who built the Carroll County Nursing home 12 years ago. The Carroll County nursing home (built 12 years ago pictures provided) looks more like a resort than an
institution.
Since 2022, The Commissioners, County Administration and Delegation were repeatedly warned that they would not get the votes for bonding (Proof in minutes). The Republicans sent three letters to the Commissioners outlining our concerns. We were ignored. Our concerns were only vaguely, if at all,
addressed.
In December 2023 the delegation again denied the bonding for the second design. After the meeting we were optimistic that we could get together, reach across the table and bring forward a new nursing home plan we could agree on and get the necessary votes to pass bonding.
But we never met so this could happen. We had one more meeting last winter which was nothing more than a last ditch effort to justify the failed plan. No further meetings whatsoever.
Now it's July, 2024 Nothing has been done for the residents of the current nursing home, which has issues with AC and sewer among other problems that have been allowed to fester. The County Commissioners led by Chair Maglaras (41 years in office) and the County Administrator (more than 30 years in that position) are responsible. For more than 40 years, they had the opportunity to fix things but instead, chose to ignore them.
The Commissioners refuse to answer the many questions as to who, what and why. The Delegation Chairman refuses to call a meeting to bring everything out in the open for discussion.
Why are the powers that be stonewalling on an investigation of finding of fact? We deserve a permanent record of who did what and when. We must unravel this $17.3 million debacle. All that money gone with nothing to show for it.
Keeping the public in the dark will not happen if we are elected County Commissioners. The people's business will be open and public. We will work hard for compromise and to settle differences. We will bring people together to get the necessary votes for bonding of an new affordable County Nursing
Home.
Cliff Newton is the state rep of Strafford District 6 and a lifetime Rochester resident
Joe Pitre is the state rep of Strafford District 1 and a lifetime Farmington resident
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