Editor:

I try to keep a neutral stance on a majority of public topics, but I can no longer remain silent regarding the now seven year old Litzenberg Long Term Care (LTC) project. Merrick County entered into a lease with Bryan on 02/23/2017 on the original site along HWY 14. This lease would allow Bryan to use the County-owned facilities until the new hospital building was complete. The county signed an agreement with Good Samaritan to take over the Long Term Care management on 04/24/2017 in the current facility. The new hospital ground was donated to Bryan by the Dinsdales in 2019, broke ground in September 2020 and opened to the public in June 2022. This entire time the county knew they were going to have a partially vacated building with aging infrastructure once the hospital moved.

Merrick County looked at remodeling the current LTC building by updating electrical, sewer and heating, but when the bids were opened on 12/27/2022 the project came in higher than expected at $2,423,400. At that time, the county organized a town hall meeting for 01/11/2023. At the town hall meeting the voters in the room had an overwhelmingly favorable view of continuing county ownership and spending money to construct a new LTC facility. In response, Merrick County signed a contract with CMBA to provide architecture and support on the design of a new long term care facility on 12/12/2023. CMBA completed the blueprints, design and cost estimates. A letter of intent was approved by Bryan for the county to lease the ground required for the construction of a new LTC facility on the south side of the Bryan campus. The Bryan-owned ground would be leased while the building would be owned by the county. The projected construction cost came back in July of 2024 just short of $17 million dollars.

Instead of the Supervisors allowing this to come to a public bond for the constituents to vote on it, they rejected the project by vote. Jan Placke, Carolyn Kucera, Roger Weigert, Tom Weller, & Dennis Jarecke voted NO. Ed Dexter and Russ Kreachbaum voted YES. It is not the yes or no votes that are the problem. It is the fact that the constituents voiced their support in favor of the county to continue ownership, and after 24 months, over $100,000 and many volunteer hours by LTC board members, the Merrick County Supervisors decided in the 11th hour to yank the plug on this project. Your county supervisors have failed to support you the voter, the LTC board members, Bryan Health, CMBA architects. Worse of all, those who stand to gain the most out of this project are our grandmas and grandpas, our moms and dads. With the rejection of this project, they will be forced to either 1) live the rest of their days in a facility that is inefficient and irreparable, or 2) find another home outside of Merrick County, further away from their loved ones. Merrick County – is this how we treat our elderly, the most vulnerable of our community?

The Merrick County Supervisors have blatantly disregarded their elected duty to represent their voting constituents. Do not forget, THEY WORK FOR YOU, voters. They are paid $715.36 biweekly (almost $20,000/yr) plus health insurance, to WORK FOR YOU. I ask that you reach out to your supervisor either in favor or opposition to how they should proceed with the Long Term Care project. The LTC project will be back on the county supervisor agenda for the August 27th meeting. Please show up. Voice your opinion. Our elderly are counting on you and me to do what is right by them. This also creates economical losses to our county of over $2,000,000 of annual payroll within the facility let alone all the third party contracts that have been focused on being held locally when economically feasible. Tyson Benner