The Yuma City Council approved the conditional use request for the former nursing home facility during its regular meeting last week.
Mayor Tim McClung, Mayor Pro-tem Jerome Benish, Terri Frame, Zach Diaz, Vanessa Dischner and Marc Shay were in attendance. Dan Baucke was absent.
The public hearing on the proposed conditional use was continued from the previous meeting, during which council members had voiced concerns about the wording. Specifically, council and community members did not want to see the facility house drug and alcohol rehab patients.
Owner Justin Shamp was directed to tighten up the language prior to last week’s meeting.
It still read “Nursing Home, Assisted Living Facility, and/or Patient Rehabilitation Center. However, wording was added to the application specifying the use will not include drug and alcohol recovery, nor behavioral or mental health.
Shamp’s mother, Marsha Barton, was in attendance at last week’s meeting. She said the family 100-percent agreed with the revisions, and they never had any other intentions than for it to be a nursing home. She asked for a little wiggle room in the case of some spillover from the assisted living facility in town or physical therapy from the hospital.
Marlene Miller, whose career has been in assisting the elderly, had voiced concerns at the previous meeting, and did so again last week. She pointed out that when the schools became outdated, the community came together to build new ones, and the same for the hospital and clinic. She noted that nothing has been done to try to build a new nursing home facility
Miller pointed to issues in the renovated building, such as bathroom size, and concerns about a corporate-run facility.
She said she is in favor of a nursing home, but it needs to be a new one and community owned. She pointed to Hillcrest in Wray and the Washington County Nursing Home in Akron as great success stories.
McClung said he agreed with Miller that the former Life Care Center is undersized and not made for contemporary needs. However, he said he has watched many people in Yuma have to move a loved one to Akron or Wray, which are good facilities but also takes them away from there home. McClung said efforts to get community support and effort together to for a new nursing home never gained traction.
“So I am going to vote for it because we don’t have much choice,” he said. “At least someone is trying to make something happen.”
The council voted 6-0 in favor of the conditional use.
The Shamps now will put the property on the market in hopes of finding someone willing to reopen it.
Grants
The council voted to table a vote on a grant policy until the first meeting in August.
The policy initially was just to clarify that if a grant did not require matching funds, it did not have to come before the council for approval before the staff could move forward.
However, Shane and Lindsey Galles, and Marylu Smith-Dischner, had visited with the council during the workshop prior to the regular meeting about partnering on a Great Outdoors Colorado grant. It would be for new lights at the high school’s football field, football practice field, softball field and baseball field.
The council then discussed partnering with others on grants when the policy came up in the regular meeting. Council members voiced concerns about putting the city at risk, such if costs that come up later would fall on the city, long-term maintenance and such. It was decided to add language to the grant policy protecting the city’s interests if it does partner with other on grants, then bring it back to the council.
More meeting
• The council was informed the city had received the grant for cardiac monitors in the ambulances, and a grant request is in the works for a new bathroom at City Park, as well as lights and cameras. (The bathroom facility has been vandalized to where it needs to be replaced.)
• The council approved the disposition of city property that will be up for sale later this year.
• The second reading of an ordinance correcting the review procedures for an alteration certificate passed unanimously. There was no public comment.
• Changes for the personnel policies and procedures manual was tabled for the second time. The point in question was if employees should be taxed for taking their vehicles to and from home to work. Interim City Manager Karma Wells said she had just heard back from the auditor. She said she wanted to clarify his explanation, which seemed to be if just drove home and back it was not taxable, but if used for personal trips it would be taxable. It will be back before the council at the next meeting, July 15.