Search On For Nursing Home Director

If everything goes right, a new director of the La Salle County Nursing Home could be picked in a month. That’s according to County Board Chairman Jerry Hicks.

After a meeting last week with Hicks, Adrienne Erickson was fired as nursing home director while Director of Nursing Lauretta Hammerich and Social Service Director Lanette Olszanowski resigned.
Dennis Reinmann from Pathway Health Services has been named the interim nursing home director. Sharon Goode also with Pathway is starting her job today in replacing Hammerich as director of nursing. Later this week, Joan Gehrke and Kathleen Mrochinski are expected to split duties as Social Services Director. They also work for Pathway Health Services.

The nursing home staff came under fire after the state and federal government fined the county once reports came out that as many as ten female patients were being sexually abused by one male patient at the nursing home. Nursing home staff was blamed for not taking action to stop the incidents.

County May Say Goodbye To Nursing Home

What do you think of county-run nursing homes? You may be able to give your opinion in an upcoming election.

Nursing Home Committee member Jack Leininger is pushing for a public vote on whether or not they should continue to run a nursing home. Leininger says taxpayers dole out 1.3 million dollars for the nursing home which doesn’t come close to paying for itself. He thinks if they leased or sold the building, that million plus dollars could be used for something else or just be one less tax people have to pay.

Leininger suggests hiring a consultant to study what the best move would be for the county home.

New County Board Member

A replacement on the La Salle County Board says she is a fiscal conservative and an advocate of veteran’s rights.

Susan Thornton of Ottawa was selected by the La Salle County Board last night to replace Mike Beavers who resigned his District 13 board seat in order to move to Canada. Board members Bob Jakupcak, Herman Bruns and Jim Olson voted against her appointment.

Thornton says she was already planning to run for the seat next year before the opening came up. She ran before in the 1990s.

Taxes Going Up In Peru

Peru’s traditionally been a town that’s worked hard at keeping the property tax rate low so when the library board asked the council for a considerable tax levy increase, aldermen were reluctant to go along.

The council last night agreed to have an ordinance drawn up increasing the library’s levy to nearly 500 thousand dollars. The council members who voted for it say they only did because they knew legally they had no choice. Dave Potthoff was the lone no vote.

It’s estimated the levy increase will drive up the property taxes on a home worth 150 thousand dollars to 85 dollars for just the library portion of the tax bill.