The Sauk County Health Care Center in Reedsburg will remain open and under county control — at least for now — after special committee meetings and a Sauk County Board meeting on June 26.
According to a July 3 story in the Reedsburg Independent Star News, a crowd full of constituents was still left seething at the way the Sauk County Board meeting was handled and by the behavior of the county board chair.
According to the article:
On June 26, the Sauk County Board met following a meeting of the joint executive and legislative committee and health care center board of trustees. There was also a special meeting of the public works and infrastructure commit- tee on the Health Care Center. The agenda item included language pertaining to the sale or lease of the center to Aria, or the closure of the center, but it failed in committee.
Due to the motion failing at the committee level, the agenda item didn’t advance to the full county board. As such, after doing attendance at the county board meeting, Chair Tim McCumber announced that there was no business on the agenda now due to the failure. He then called for a motion to adjourn.
The motion enraged the packed room of spectators, which included residents at the Sauk County Health Care Center, who wanted an opportunity to speak.
The motion to adjourn passed unanimously. Angered shouts came from the gallery as several citizens approached to voice their disappointment. Aria was initially going to begin leasing the center on July 1, but that plan fell through when it learned that its application to purchase the nursing home could not be used for instead leasing.
During the public works and infrastructure committee meeting, legal counsel laid out that the Department of Human Services requires a separate application process for that type of licensing. This will require at least an- other 60 days. Earlier in June, the board approved a measure to lease the center, rather than directly sell it, to Aria.
McCumber questioned who’d want to buy the center at this point, by Sauk County Citizens for Senior Care against Sauk County. The plaintiffs, which include the organization and citizens Judy Brey and Thomas Kriegl, allege the County Board violated the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law as well as its own rules when deciding to sell the center to Aria.
What happens next regarding the lease will depend on the results of the lawsuit, according to the July 3 article.
