CALAIS, Maine — In the view of Calais Mayor Joe Cassidy, it’s not over until it’s over.
The only licensed nursing home in Calais closed last week, displacing dozens of residents and costing 92 health care workers their jobs.
Cassidy said Tuesday the city will convene a “mass brainstorming session” sometime during the week of July 8 to weigh the costs and benefits of possibly transferring ownership of the Atlantic Rehabilitation and Nursing Center to a new, public entity that would allow the 52-bed facility to reopen.
“Working with [state Senate President] Kevin Raye and other Washington County legislators as facilitators, we’ll pull together the stakeholders and discuss what’s possible,” Cassidy said. “That might include the local hospital and also First Atlantic, although we’ve had no discussion with them since they announced the closure.”
First Atlantic is the Portland-based firm that owns the nursing home. It received approval from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to build a new nursing home facility in Ellsworth. In its certificate of need application, which was approved in October and reaffirmed in May after an appeal by the city of Calais, First Atlantic told DHHS it would close Atlantic Rehab in Calais.
“It would be a very difficult proposition to have city ownership of the facility without some form of help,” Cassidy said Tuesday. “I’m not sure what that would be, but that’s among the things we’ll discuss.”
Cassidy said it has yet to be determined whether the discussion about the future of the facility will be public or held behind closed doors. “Either way,” he said, “the results of the meeting will be made public.”
First Atlantic recently announced that Atlantic Rehab would be closed on July 6. When the few remaining residents were able to find placements elsewhere sooner, the closure was moved up to June 21.
Residents and their families didn’t learn until February that closure was likely, even though the DHHS approved the certificate of need application in October of 2011. For months, residents and their caretakers have been scrambling to find space in other Washington County nursing homes, virtually all of which have waiting lists.
First Atlantic CEO Kenneth Bowden said at a public hearing in April that the facility was drowning in red ink, estimating that expenses in 2011 exceeded revenues by $272,000.
He also stated that transferring ownership to the city of Calais might be a viable option because reimbursement rates for nursing homes that are publicly owned are significantly higher than the rates of reimbursement for which private-sector owners are eligible.
They would unionize in less than a year and will cost more then the school to run.
That has always been their right!, but then again, I’m not an expert on unions like you.
I bet you are one of those people that want these people working for minimum wages no benefits no breaks an no over time pay
Probably one of those bosses that thinks the money they pay gives them the right to bully workers.
yes thats true
When employees are treated with respect and given a fair salary with reasonable benefits, they don’t feel the need to unionize. It might strain you but you should look into the reasons a union was voted in by the former employees there.
Now go back to watching Fox.
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Let me get this straight…re-open AFTER all these elderly people were put through a move into another facility? Im thinking this “massive brainstorming session” should have taken place prior to the closing….Just thinking out loud.
Just looking at the picture one can see flaws as to why the building alone is expensive to run with the energy costs of today. Cement blocks has zero R-Value. Looks like it also use new windows. But nothing is impossible. Good luck to Calais on getting this back up and running. Hopefully it won’t be closed for long.
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This isn’t something that can happen over night, if First Atlantic had given the town notice in March 2011 then maybe something could have happened sooner but with the late notice and the hurry to close…there was little the town could do in. I pray something is done soon as PaTom1 said “if something isn’t done quick they will lose a lot of trained personnel”.
Calais should do this in a partnership with all the towns in the area that have people that need this kind of care. I would hope that they invite representatives from Baileyville, Robinston, Perry, Charlotte, Cooper, Alexander, Crawford, Princeton, Indian Twp. Talmadge, Waite, Topsfield, Lambert Lake, etc. Wherever this facility would draw residents from.
A whole new building needs to be built. One with a roof that doesn’t have to be rebuilt in a couple of years. There is plenty of room available and maybe it could be attached to the Calais Hospital. If attached as a wing similar to the Veterans Home in Machias, it would save hundreds of thousands of dollars in ambulance fees. It used to cost $500 a trip to take people across the street to the hospital.
If something isn’t done quickly we will lose a lot of trained personel to other jobs or relocation to greener pastures.
Calais doesn’t play nice with its friends, just look at the Downeast ambulance service. Calais thought they could make a $ so they undermined all the outlaying towns and pulled out of the agreement leaving everyone on their own. That was wrong and other towns should run the other way if asked to do business.
calais officials saved the taxpayers of calais a lot of money by creating their own ambulance service. as a tax payer this is all you can ask for. they arent elected to represent woodland, lubec, eastport etc. maybe if your official represented you a little better you wouldnt have a bee in your bonnet regarding calais or maybe you were just one of the many who had their hand in the cookie jar at the old ambulance service which forced calais to go it alone.
Something like this would be set up as a non-profit. All the people from this area would benefit. With the combined effort of all the towns it could be done a lot quicker with the cost spread amongst all the residents.
Mr Mustard is going to let his voice be heard..People gone, Nursing home CLOSED. Remember Mustard when you vote against him in Nov.
Just jack up every ones local taxes by 10,000 percent. Maybe a 15 cents sales tax in Calais for the nursing home. It can be done. Don’t expect any money from LePage or his Tea Party Republicans, because it will never happen.
A one or two percent increase in property taxes from the area that a nursing home in Calais would serve should pay the way.