Although the state mandates prisons, and no such mandate exists for nursing homes. I believe that a sacred covenant exists between the county and its elderly, to maintain Cedarbrook. Northampton has a very old prison and a modern nursing home. Here in Lehigh County, we have a modern high rise prison, and a very old nursing home. Prisoners in Lehigh County have nicer amenities than the patients at its nursing home. What's wrong with that picture, what's wrong with those priorities?
County Commissioners have been studying renovating Cedarbrook since 2011.
Former County Executive Tom Muller had a plan in 2014 to renovate a wing of Cedarbrook into private and semi-private rooms. His analysis had the project paying for itself within three years, by attracting rehabilitation residents. Instead of pursuing that viable turn around project, the Commissioners instead explored the sale option. Had the commissioners implemented Muller's plan, the proposed renovated wing would have already paid for itself.
Now, five years later, and the commissioners are still dropping the ball in regard to our elderly. Some of the current commissioners even ran on a Cedarbrook platform. While new federal regulations now require private bathrooms, the commissioners just voted to go ahead with shared bathrooms, and apply for a federal waiver. I've become skeptical about their intentions... Could voting yes on an unacceptable plan be just another way to continue ignoring Cedarbrook and our older residents?
photo by K. Mary Hess
You're way off base on this post.
ReplyDeleteMuller had, and wanted, a political issue. Muller may have had an idea, but refused to present details to commissioners for years, including requested alternate scenarios where a completely new Cedarbrook facility would be built to consolidate the residents in South Whitehall and Fountain Hill. At the time, Muller was claiming he could get everything done for about $20 million.
When he finally did have professionals do a preliminary plan (at the direction of the Commissioners), it was discovered that the "new wing" (as you call it, but actually just a renovated wing) wouldn't comply with the current-century bathroom mandates, and would cost tens-of-millions of dollars in excess of what Muller was portraying. Similarly, the income projections for the rehab services that you say "would have already paid" for the project were not nearly as rosy.
So Muller's plan (this one with detail and real numbers) then morphed into a combination of building a NEW wing for most residents, and renovating the existing wing for offices and the remainder of the residents. The new price for Muller’s plan was now $70 million. Unfortunately, this plan still didn't solve the bathroom issue for the renovated wing, and there was the very real possibility that the cost would skyrocket even further once the renovation started and the construction team would see what was actually behind the walls. Despite those drawbacks, the commissioners still narrowly approved that plan (which again, Muller supported) about a year before Muller left office.
Despite the Commissioner APPROVAL of his revised plan, Muller did nothing to start on construction, since the renovation part of his plan was flawed and waivers were not approved. The current Executive - two years into office - has done nothing because the plan remains flawed, and waivers still have not been approved.
I'm not sure why the commissioners approved (again) going ahead with the plan Wednesday night (on top of the approval already given), but can only assume it was to prod the current administration into some action. They likely want to see construction begin on the new wing, and they (or a future Board) will deal with the older building later. But that’s a bad way to approach the problem.
The waivers still won't come and another new wing will have to be built, which will end up being a much more expensive option than just constructing a NEW building for ALL residents (including Cedarbrook - Fountain Hill) now. Otherwise, going forward with the renovate portion of the plan will result in a significant portion of the residents being left in rooms that are still not up to modern standards (at best), or the renovation portion not being done at all (since the waivers won't come).
Unknown@10:33, for conversation only, lets say that your details are more accurate than mine, but either way, despite all the studies, nothing has been built or improved in eight years.
ReplyDelete