Letter: ‘Mean-spirited’ proposal rightfully defeated

During the Oct. 26 St. Croix County Board of Supervisors meeting a motion was introduced to amend the already-balanced new budget.

In essence, had this motion passed, $664,000 — previously allocated from the levy to our county nursing home in New Richmond — would have been withheld from the nursing home and instead reassigned to other departments.

This mean-spirited motion was brought to the floor by Supervisor 13 Steve Hermsen and seconded by Supervisor 18 Robert Shearer. Because of a 9-9 tied vote, the motion failed.

In Frank Robinson, our county nursing home has an outstanding advocate and administrator.

During the first 18 months of his comparatively brief tenure, Frank has engendered the unanimous support of his staff, has led our nursing home through consecutive citation-free accreditation visits, and has reduced our county nursing home’s dependence on the levy by 35%.

His goal is to have the nursing home operating completely independent of levy dollars by the year 2015.

The October online issue of U.S. News and World Report, recognized our St. Croix County Nursing Home as one of the top 60 nursing homes in Wisconsin.

In November the referendum question, “Should St. Croix County continue to operate a public nursing home if property tax dollars are needed to fund its operation?” appeared on the ballot. Without exception, every jurisdiction

in St. Croix County voted yes, and by at least a 2-1 margin.

That is not at all surprising when one considers the nursing home staff’s motto: “Our residents do not live in an institution; we work in their home.”

Tags: opinion, letters, troy, government