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5 things to know: Monmouth nursing home sale moves ahead

Asbury Park Press (NJ) - 8/1/2015

Aug. 01--FREEHOLD -- Emotions may escalate as Monmouth County begins the process of selling its two nursing homes.

Monday night the county hosts the first of three public hearings, required by New Jersey law for the sale.

The Board of Chosen Freeholders voted in March to sell Geraldine L. Thompson and John L. Montgomery care centers, which have operated at a deficit for eight year. Since 2007, the homes cost the county almost $47 million.

What should I expect at the public hearings?

Monday's hearing will be at 5 p.m. at the Hall of Records in Freehold, the county seat. It will be followed by two more meetings, both on Aug. 17 in Freehold and Wall, where the care centers are located. The public hearing in Wall will be at 10 a.m. at the Wall Township Municipal Building, 2700 Allaire Road. The hearing in Freehold will be at 2 p.m. at the Agriculture Building at 4000 Kozloski Road.

The public hearings will be run by Archer & Greiner, the law firm hired to handle legal issues related to the nursing homes sale. Those comments will be included in a report to the freeholders and will become part of the public record, Monmouth County spokeswoman Laura Kirkpatrick said.

What happens next?

Once the public hearings are complete, the freeholder will vote on a resolution that advertises the two nursing homes for sale. That should happen in late August. Under the most recent time line, the public auction on the nursing homes would happen in early October. The county would close on the sale in December.

Isn't this behind schedule?

A tentative timeline discussed in March, when county officials were discussing this year's budget, had the auction of the nursing homes taking place in the summer with the sale closing in the fall.

Kirkpatrick said the freeholders had initially hoped for the sale to move forward by the middle of the year, but the county also had to follow the law regarding the sale. That required the first public hearing to happen 30 days after it published reports regarding the sale of each center.

Those reports were release on the county's website on July 2, which meant the first public hearing couldn't happen earlier than Monday.

"(The freeholders) are moving the process along and getting everything taken care of in due course," Kirkpatrick said.

How will that impact the county's budget?

The county had expected to save about $2 million in this year budget -- roughly a quarter of the annual deficits -- with the nursing home auction happening in the summer.

But County Finance Director Craig Marshall does not expect problems with the budget even though the sale is happening later than initially discussed in March, Kirkpatrick said.

The line item budget actually kept full funding for nursing home operations for the entire year, with expected savings coming from reduction in pension contributions, health care and related costs for nursing home employees as well as utilities for the buildings.

The county typically has unspent money that would otherwise go into the county's reserves. That money would be reallocated to cover additional expenses by the county running the nursing homes for the full year.

"He feels comfortable with the county's financial position with the intent that the sale will generate money coming back to the budget," Kirkpatrick said.

How much could Monmouth County get for the two centers?

The reports list a potential value of $5.7 million to $6.4 million for Geraldine L. Thompson and $5.4 million to $6.3 million for John L. Montgomery. The values are based on a February 2014 report conducted by Marcus & Millichap that reviewed the center's financial numbers from 2012.

Residents can read the reports for Geraldine L. Thompson and John L. Montgomery on the county's website: www.visitmonmouth.com.

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(c)2015 the Asbury Park Press (Neptune, N.J.)

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