By Jalen Maki
Tomahawk Leader Editor
MERRILL – In a special joint meeting this week, two Lincoln County committees will discuss a potential referendum related to the funding of Pine Crest Nursing Home in Merrill.
The county’s Administrative and Legislative (A&L) and Finance committees are scheduled to meet at the Lincoln County Service Center, 801 N. Sales St., Merrill, on Friday, Aug. 9 at 7:30 a.m. The meeting may be attended virtually at www.tinyurl.com/2edcsd9f.
The agenda includes discussion regarding Pine Crest financials, possible action on a resolution seeking to authorize a binding referendum and the potential approval of the official referendum question language.
The proposed resolution, authored by District 10 Supervisor and Board Chair Jesse Boyd and cosponsored by District 12 Supervisor Julie DePasse, seeks to exceed levy limits each year from 2025 to 2029 to fund Pine Crest operations, maintenance and debt services.
The amount by which levy limits would be exceeded if the resolution were to ultimately be approved by the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors was not provided in the resolution and is expected to be discussed during Friday’s joint committee meeting.
The resolution’s proposal comes roughly one month after Merrill Campus LLC and Senior Management Inc., the organizations which were previously set to buy Pine Crest, terminated the Asset Purchase Agreement with Lincoln County in response to a lawsuit filed by Donald J. Dunphy in May.
Under the agreement, the buyers could terminate the agreement in the event that Lincoln County or Pine Crest faced legal action that would “adversely affect the operation or the financial condition” of the Merrill facility or “restrain or prohibit the consumption of the transaction” of Pine Crest.
In the lawsuit, Dunphy, who represents District 7 on the Lincoln County board and is a member of People for Pine Crest, a group that has advocated against the sale of the Merrill facility, alleged that Lincoln County had failed to follow best practices set forth in a Lincoln County resolution related to the sale of high-value property. By failing to follow these best practices, Dunphy claimed, the county ultimately agreed to sell Pine Crest and the county’s Health and Social Services building for less than they are worth.
Dunphy also alleged that, under Lincoln County code, the county’s Forestry Committee has jurisdiction over the sale of the properties.
Dunphy also claimed that the “operating deficit experienced by the nursing home in the years prior to 2023” was a “substantial consideration” in the county board’s decision to sell Pine Crest and alleged that “an increase to the Medicaid reimbursement rate paid to public nursing homes eliminated Pine Crest’s operating expense deficits beginning in the first quarter of 2023.”
In a written Answer filed in Lincoln County court in June, Lincoln County Corporation Counsel Karry Johnson acknowledged that the Merrill facility’s operating deficit was one of several factors considered by the county board in reaching the decision to sell Pine Crest and denied Dunphy’s claim that the facility’s first quarter 2023 operating expense deficits were eliminated by a Medicaid reimbursement rate increase.
Johnson also refuted Dunphy’s allegation that the change in circumstances as a result of the Medicaid reimbursement rate was ignored by the county and said the board was not required to follow the best practices laid out in the resolution referenced by Dunphy.
Dunphy’s allegation regarding jurisdiction of the properties being vested in the Forestry Committee was also refuted by Johnson.
Dunphy said in an interview with the Merrill Foto News that the lawsuit was his “vehicle to keep Pine Crest from being sold.”
“I was opposed to the decision to sell Pine Crest from the beginning,” Dunphy stated. “When I ran for (Lincoln) County board, I told everyone I talked to that I would do my best to reverse that decision. … My goal is to have the court declare the sales contract null and void.”
According to court records, Dunphy’s lawsuit was dismissed on Monday, July 29.