Pocono News Section

Commissioners Vote to Officially Sell County Nursing Home

Commissioners Vote to Officially Sell County Nursing Home - Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 5:10PM EST

Reported by: Eric Deabill
Wednesday, Jan 13, 2010 @ 05:10pm EST
BLAKELY, LACKAWANNA COUNTY Ð ItÕs a done deal. After months of negotiations, the Lackawanna County nursing home is officially being sold.

County Commissioners voted unanimously to sell the Blakely facility Wednesday morning. The purchase price will be $13.4 million.

The nursing home is being sold to Florida-based millennium management. Officials say the sale will help balance the county's budget, but also reduce the size of county government by about 20%.

All of the nursing home workers will now be private employees. Commissioner Mike Washo said, ÒCounty government has not business being involved in businesses and we demonstrated today we can take county government out of the business without adversely affecting the business."

Two recent appraisals of the nursing home show it has a value of just under $10 million.