Portage County Health Care Center’s future in limbo as election stalls

A decision on the future of the Portage County Health Care Center remains in limbo.

After the county’s Finance and Health Care Center committees voted last week to place a resolution on the County Board’s agenda for Monday night’s meeting seeking to hold a special election Aug. 8 to ask voters for more money to construct and operate a new health care center, that plan hit a snag.

Deputy Corporation Counsel David Hickethier told board members at the beginning of Monday’s meeting that state statutes don’t allow for special elections to exceed tax levy limits to be held in odd numbered years. He urged board members to pull the item from the agenda and move it back to the committees for further discussion.

The referendum, instead, would need to be held during the next regularly scheduled primary, spring or general election. County Finance Director Jennifer Jossie stated in a previous committee meeting the earliest the county could get a referendum on a ballot without a special election would be spring 2024.

Although language for a potential referendum question had not been written, the county expected to ask voters for an additional $2 million annually for a yet to be determined period of time to build and operate the new health care center.

That is in addition to the $4.5 million a year for 20 years residents approved through referendum in April 2022.

With the special election and referendum on hold, the Stevens Point Journal asked Portage County Executive John Pavelski and Facilities Director Todd Neuenfeldt a number of questions about the current condition of the Health Care Center, how long it can continue to operate in its current condition and what options the county has as it moves forward with discussions about the center’s future.

The Journal received the following responses through email from Hickethier.

How long can the Health Care Center operate in its current condition?

At the Jan. 24 meeting of the Space and Properties and Health Care Center committees, Neuenfeldt spoke about the center’s imminent maintenance concerns as the boilers near their end of life, the windows and the roof need to be replaced and the electrical system continues to be taxed.

“While it is impossible to know when a boiler may fail, we know that the steam boilers and associated piping in the Health Care Center are past their life expectancy,” Neuenfeldt said in his emailed responses to the Journal following up on those comments. “Improvements to the current facility, which need to be made, include replacing the HVAC system, the windows, the likely electrical upgrades and new roofing. These improvements need to happen in the next three to seven years.”

Pavelski added in the email that many repairs have been put on hold at the Health Care Center and funds not spent with the thought it would be replaced with a new building and now “that is in jeopardy of not happening,” he said.

Pavelski said while he cannot say how long the Health Care Center can operate, the current building is in need of updates. If the county were to wait until the spring of 2024 and a referendum does pass, it will be at least 18 months later that a new health care center could be built “at the very earliest. That is at best two and a half years away from now,” he said.

Can the county change course and repair the current facility?

The Health Care Center, at 825 Whiting Ave., has been in physical decline and faced financial struggles for more than a decade.

In 2014, then-County Executive Patty Dreier described the facility, which was built in 1931, as “obsolete” and urged the county to make money available to build a new $20 million center instead of spending $14 million to remodel the existing facility. The center’s administrator at the time said the facility was outdated and needed to replace multiple boilers as well as its air conditioning system.

In 2018, voters approved a stopgap measure to close the Health Care Center’s budget deficit when they approved a referendum seeking to increase taxes by $1.4 million for four years while county leaders looked for a sustainable business plan.

And the center has continued to face ongoing struggles since as costs for the proposed new center continue to rise, maintenance concerns mount, and the facility struggles to find staff and maintain a minimum number of residents.

“I believe the financial numbers that have been discussed in recent meetings show that operating in the existing Portage County Health Care Center for a prolonged period of time and trying to repair the current building is fiscally untenable,” Pavelski said.

What happens if the County Board and voters do not approve a second referendum?

Because of increased construction costs for the new facility and the increased operating costs and decreased revenue, projections late in 2021 for the Health Care Center “have dramatically changed due to a perfect storm of conditions,” Pavelski said. “What once was a $4.5 million referendum for both the cost of new construction and ongoing operations costs is now a potential $6.5 to $7 million referendum to cover those same expenses, which have increased more quickly than anticipated.”

Pavelski said those new numbers are contingent on the county’s ability to attract, hire and retain employees to work in the new Health Care Center and the ability to attain sufficient numbers of residents.

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