Sheltered Care Vote 7Y-22N
Published by Al Adomite on April 17th, 2008
By Al
I can’t think of a county issue that has received more attention from individual board members than the future (or lack thereof) the county’s Sheltered Care Home. I do have to say that I’m stunned (stunned!) by the one-sidedness of the vote from last night’s board meeting, 22-7.
There are two good articles and one not-so-great article in the area’s newspapers this morning. Whomever wrote the headline for the Alton Telegraph obviously has paid less attention to the issue (and didn’t actually READ the article), as the County Board refused the bids (but they DID take bids).
Either way, this vote was the finale of the debate. Unfortunately, the hyperbole grew in the early days of this week, which resulted in some outrageous comments. The first quote was from AJ French of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, stating the County Board members “integrity was on the line”:
“You voted to do this,” she said. “It shouldn’t be whether or not to rebuild (the home). It should be which bid to accept.”
Not so, though, if you’ve been following the debate. The previous vote, 16-12 in favor of taking bids, was just that: a vote to take bids. It was never a vote to move forward with building a new facility. The local proponents had to have been aware of the apprehension of several key yes votes back in November.
The next point of hyperbole, from Larry Evans of the United Congregations of the Metro-East, will certainly change the dynamics within the Democrat caucus of the County Board, especially since 16 of the Yes votes were Democrats:
“I think we’re trading levees for lives,” he said, referring to recent action to shore up aging river levees in the region. “They want to take that $5 million and put it toward levees and tell the people how they saved money. Wait until they see what it will cost the county to find housing for those people.”
Linking levees with sheltered care leaves me speechless. I had not heard any board member link the two, but the support of Edwardsville-area board members is key to the County Democrat’s sales tax proposal for the levees. Not sure if that is weakened as a result of this (I’ll write more on that issue later).
There are obvious benefits to the County Board’s approach for property taxpayers. But only if the current 36 residents are placed in solid private facilities. There is only one other county (Champaign) in the State that has a facility like this, and it’s been rather cumbersome for their County Board.
Filed under County Issues
April 18th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Alan Dunstan should get kudos for having the courage and leadership to help the county board make the right decision. Current residents and future people needing care will get better care at private facilities and the counties long term financial commitment will be lower.
As far as the comment concerning the levees, there is about as much connection between the shelter care vote and the levee vote, as the there was between the earthquake this morning and the ice storm two years ago.