The closing of Country Life Healthcare was a major topic of discussion at Monday morning’s Mahaska County Board of Supervisors meeting. Randy Kelley, who’s run the facility, spoke with the Board and outlined the plan for closing.
Kelley said all residents would be out by July 1st, and employees would finish closing the facilities by the end of September. Housing arrangements have been set for some of the residents as well. Kelley said new regulations from the state for assisted living facilities such as Country Life Healthcare and its location in rural Mahaska County were to main reasons why it made sense to make this decision.
A Residential Care Task Force led by Julie Bak has also worked in conjunction with Country Life and other similar residences such as Christian Opportunity Center and Imagine the Possibilities to work on placing other residents. Bak asked if some of the beds and dressers from the facility could go with the residents they were trying to place, and the Supervisors said that would be fine, but there are certain legal issues that prevent that from happening cleanly. This particular item was added to the May 18th agenda to address after County Attorney Amy Zenor looked into those specific items.
In other action:
– The Board unanimously approved road vacations at 163rd Street in the Monroe Township and 315th Street in the Harrison Township.
– Troy Bemis from the county maintenance department talked about gathering new bids to complete the roof repair on the courthouse.
– Bradley Kinkade was hired as the new Assistant County Attorney at the recommendation of County Attorney Amy Zenor. Kinkade did well through training, and will be paid on average $45,000 annually for a 30 day probationary period, and will then be bumped up to $47,500 annually.
– The Board appointed Vice-Chair Willie VanWeelden to the Southeast Connector committee
The full minutes of the meeting can be viewed on www.mahaskacounty.org.
The Mahaska County Board of Supervisors will next meet on Monday, May 18th, at 9 AM at the Mahaska County Courthouse on the square in Oskaloosa.
