MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County lawmakers will learn more about the party or parties that wish to purchase the county home in Dunkirk when the County Legislature meets during a special meeting tonight in Mayville. County Executive Greg Edwards will attend the meeting, along with members of the Marcus and Millichap firm, which the county hired late last year to market the county home.
Edwards, along with some members of the county legislature, has been proponents of selling the county home, saying that it cannot financially support itself. Edwards says that leaves Chautauqua County taxpayers on the hook to pay an ever increasing amount of tax dollars to operate the long term care facility.
During the legislature’s Audit and Control Committee last month, auditors from the accounting firm BWB presented results of their annual audit. The report showed the Dunkirk skilled nursing facility lost approximately $1.8 million in 2010 and over $3 million in 2011.
According to a financial report commissioned by the Audit and Control Committee, the County Home was slated to run a deficit of $3.7 million this year.
In addition, the home’s cash accounts were expected to be depleted by the middle of next year. But in May lawmakers approved a $1.38 million appropriation from the county’s fund balance to match a federal grant that will give the home a $3.6 million revenue boost.
Edwards has not said how many different parties have expressed in interest in purchasing the home, making tonight the first opportunity lawmakers and the public will have in learning that information.
Tonight’s meeting will be open to the public and will take at 6:30 p.m. in the legislative chambers in Mayville.
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