Monterey considering options for nursing home lease

Although the lease doesn't expire for more than a year, officials in the town of Monterey are already working on a new deal for the operation of the city-owned nursing home.

Standing Stone Health Care and Rehabilitation Center is currently being run by Signature Health Care, under a lease agreement with the town.

"Signature's lease with our facility expires in April 2019," Mayor Bill Wiggins told the Monterey Board of Aldermen this month. "The Standing Stone Health Care Board of Trustees is well-representing you all in terms of getting the best deal possible. They've already had an initial meeting with the Signature folks, so those negotiations are underway."

But the mayor said other health care companies have also expressed interest in operating the nursing home.

"A gentleman called me from Diversified Care," he said. "That's another major nursing home provider, and we're going to meet with them Jan. 9. We're (also) going to be talking with folks from LifeCare and maybe National Health Care. That would be a long shot, but we're going to try to talk to as many providers as possible."

Wiggins said the goal is to increase the monetary benefit to the city while also providing topnotch care.

"Sure, the bottom line is the money," he said. "But we're also looking for a provider that has a reputation of providing quality care. We'll try to balance those two in making recommendations."

Meanwhile, the mayor said improvements continue at the city-owned Cate-Gill building, located next door to the nursing home.

"Where the food bank was located, we just had major structural problems there," he said. "The support beams were completely gone with water and termite damage. That has now been remedied. It will be a really presentable suite to accommodate the food bank or any other tenant the city might want to rent that to after the food bank leaves - if they do."

However, the mayor said the suite of offices across the hall from the food bank location will be more troublesome.

"There's some suspicious soft spots in the floor. We don't know what that's about," he said."The other more than suspicious spot - a glaring spot - is in Dr. Smith's X-ray room. As you might suspect, that room is (surrounded) with lead-lined sheetrock, and there's ... separation from the baseboard."

He said officials are proceeding with caution to address the issue

"We don't dare try to jack that up, not with lead-lined sheet rock up top," he said. "We're just going to stabilize it and improvise with (something) to cover that spot so that his X-ray room will look like it's not falling. It's sturdy, but we can shore that up at very little cost."