County breaks ground on new nursing home

Work has begun at the site of the new Wayne County Nursing Home. The official groundbreaking ceremony took place this morning.

Construction of the new two-story, 192-bed facility on Nye Rd., Lyons, will cost about $25.7 million. Arcadia Supervisor Joe DeSanto has said that after reimbursements, the new nursing home will cost under $30 per person in the county.

The County Board of Supervisors elected to build the new facility last summer, and awarded bids earlier this month. Two supervisors have opposed the project - Jim Fabino (Lyons) and Dave Spickerman (Butler). Fabino heads the Buildings and Grounds Committee and Spickerman chairs the Planning Committee. Both have said that the nursing home will cost the county too much money, and Fabino has called the project 'inflated.'

County Treasurer Tom Warnick has also voiced his disapproval of the construction, saying he thought it unwise to take a '30-year bond on a building that's not going to even last 30 years.

But proponents, such as DeSanto and Williamson Supervisor Tom Wetherell say the new facility is about providing quality services, not about money. Both men sit on the County's Building Ad Hoc Committee that studied the feasibility of the new construction. Also on the Committee are Fabino, Don Colvin (Savannah), Dave Lyon (Palmyra), Chairman of the Board Marv Decker (Wolcott) and Interim County Administrator Keith Kubasik.

General construction will be completed by LeChase Construction. (That bid came in at $10.8 million.) Four other contracts have been awarded for structural steel, plumbing, electrical, etc.

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