Senate passes funding for nursing facility

By GINA KINSLOW
Glasgow Daily Times

FRANKFORT June 22, 2009 12:11 pm

— The State Senate passed its version of the budget bill on Friday and included in it was money that will be used to help fund the replacement of the Glasgow State Nursing Facility on State Avenue in Glasgow.
“There is $2 million of bond funds to provide for the design and planning (of the facility),” said Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg, Monday morning.
The money set aside by the Senate, however, is only a drop in the bucket.
“This initiates the process and moves it forward,” Givens said.
It will take close to $18 million to fund the replacement of the facility, which has structural issues. A masonry project conducted in 2004 revealed the building has some structural issues and state officials have struggled over the last couple of years to come up with the money that would fund building repairs.
“The challenge right now is to get it through the House,” he said.
The bill is expected to go before the House Monday.
“It will stay in there. This is the third time we’ve put it in there. We’re absolutely going to keep it in there,” said Rep. Johnny Bell, D-Glasgow.
Bell said he has spoken with other state legislators about the project and the urgent need to get money appropriated for the project to not only save the facility, but to continue providing care for the patients there and to retain the jobs the facility provides.
“Everybody knows it’s of the utmost importance,” he said.
The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services requested bond authorization for a capital project to replace the nursing home during the 2009 General Assembly session, but the money was not appropriated. Instead, there was language in the budget bill that directed the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to develop and submit a plan to the Legislative Research Commission on Dec. 1, 2008 relating to the replacement of the nursing facility.
The Cabinet for Health and Family Services submitted the report and stressed its recommendation was to construct a replacement facility on the nursing home’s current grounds.
The facility was built in the mid-to-late 1960s and once served as a hospital for patients suffering from tuberculosis. Patients who now live at the nursing facility suffer from mental illness/mental retardation diagnoses. A masonry project conducted in 2004 revealed the building has some structural issues and state officials have struggled over the last couple of years to come up with the money that would fund building repairs. When Givens and Bell spoke to members of the Glasgow-Barren County Chamber of Commerce in April, Bell explained that the building’s structural issues stem from a lack of rebar in the concrete.
Bell said Monday morning he has not seen the Senate's draft of the bill. The original plan called for the facility to remain state-run, he said.
“That’s the way we put it in the budget. I don’t think they would have changed that any, but as you know that is something that has been an issue as to whether it will be a state-run facility or a private-run facility,” Bell said.
But according to Givens a decision has not been made as to whether the facility will be state-run or privately-run.
“We have not addressed those questions,” he said.
The General Assembly is scheduled to reconvene Monday afternoon.