May 21, 2018
Dear friend,
The sale of the Champaign County Nursing Home (CCNH) is imminent. The Champaign County Board will be meeting this week – on Thursday, May 24 at 6:30 p.m. – and will be voting on the sale of the CCNH.
Altitude Health and Extended Care Clinical, LLC, together, are the sole bidder for purchasing the county’s nursing home. These companies are owned by members of the Rothner family, who have extensive ownership in nursing homes in multiple states.
We urge you to:
- Review the research that CCHCC has compiled on these companies, which are owned by members of the Rothner family, and on nursing homes owned by the Rothners.
You can see the research here [1] - Contact your County Board members by phone or e-mail and let them know you oppose the sale of the CCNH to this buyer.
What we are asking the County Board to do, and why: Given the concerns that exist about the current bidder for the CCNH, and the need for more information, we are asking the County Board to simply pause, or slow down, and not rush into the sale of CCNH to this buyer. There are other developments that are promising for the CCNH, and these should be allowed some time.
Below is information on:
- Thursday’s County Board Meeting (address, time, etc.)
- How to contact your County Board Members
1. Thursday, May 24 County Board Meeting
The sale of CCNH is on the agenda for Thursday’s County Board Meeting. Please contact your County Board members before Thursday’s meeting (see how in next section below). You can also attend the County Board Meeting on Thursday and speak out during public participation. The vote to sell the CCNH is toward the end of the meeting – at the bottom of Page 2 under item XV. New Business, A. Finance, 1. **Adoption of Resolution No. 2018-141 Authorizing the Sale of the Champaign County Nursing Home.
Here are the details for Thursday’s meeting:
WHAT: Champaign County Board Meeting
WHEN: Thursday, May 24, 2018 at 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Brookens Administrative Center, Lyle Shields Meeting Room
1776 E. Washington Street, Urbana
AGENDA:
http://www.co.champaign.il.us/CountyBoard/CB/2018/180524_Meeting/180524Agenda.pdf [2]
2. How to contact your County Board Members
Please call or e-mail your County Board Members to let them know that you oppose the sale of the Champaign County Nursing Home to the current proposed buyer, given their track record (read sections below for more information). Champaign County can do better than this!
County Board members are under tremendous pressure to sell now, and to sell to this sole bidder because of the County’s finances. The financial strain is real, and the pressure is very intense. However, rejecting this bid does not mean that the County cannot work with its brokers to solicit other bids in the near future.
- List of Champaign County Board Members with contact information (find your County Board Members on this list, and call or e-mail them TODAY):
http://www.co.champaign.il.us/CountyBoard/pdf/cbmembers.pdf [3] - Not sure which County Board District you live in and who your County Board Members are?
You can look at an Interactive County Map to find your County Board District!
Instructions:
- Go here to find the map:
http://ccgisc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Viewer/index.html?appid=51e691d42c09476f994d1721b0a199ac [4]
- On the right side of the map, there is a box that says “Layers”; click the box next to “County Board Districts”
- Then click on the map in the area near where you live, and give the map a moment to expand so you can see more detail. County Board Districts are listed with the initials “CB” followed by the number of the district, and that is how you know which district you are in.
- Once you figure out your district, you can go to the list of County Board members listed in A. above, and find your County Board members and contact them.
- Message when you call or e-mail: Let your County Board member know that you know that there are a lot of financial pressures on the County Board, but that they should not sell the Champaign County Nursing Home to this buyer, given their track record (see information below).
Please stay tuned for more important information about the Champaign County Nursing Home and the bid to purchase it.
Thank you for your activism to help protect Champaign County’s public assets!
Claudia Lennhoff
Executive Director
Champaign County Health Care Consumers