Seniors may lose home - Lamar Ledger

Residents and community members alike enjoy the swimming pool and spa at Prairie Pines Assisted Living.

[Sarah Slater]

My grandmother is a resident of Prairie Pines.

She was in failing health and having difficulty managing the tasks of daily life including several mix ups with her medications.

Now, she is thriving. The staff are wonderful and take such good care of her. She has someone to manage her medications, do her laundry, clean her apartment, cook her meals and help her with simple tasks like buttoning her blouse.

It's been a huge relief to our whole family knowing she is safe and well cared for. With the baby boomers now reaching advanced age, facilities like Prairie Pines are becoming more and more important. There needs to be an option between independant living and the nursing home.

I'm not a resident of Kiowa County but if such a measure were on the ballot where I live, I would certainly support it. After all the "greatest generation" has done for us, this is the least we can do.

[taxpayer]

While I do have a tendency to agree with you I have a question. Why is it the resposibility of the taxpayers to pay for retirees a place to live. They worked their whole life.....did they not save for their retirement and why do they have to rely on the current taxpayers struggling to make ends meet and raise their families to support their retirement.

[plainswoman]

Taxpayer - Don't you think you are assuming a lot? The people who live there do pay for their care - several thousand dollars a month, in fact. The issue is not the seniors' ability to pay for their accommodations, but the County's ability to pay the mortgage for the facility it built. Maybe you should get the whole story before you comment on the situation.

[surprised]

The residents are paying several thousand a month to live there, but the county taxpayers are paying the mortgage? Sounds like a scam on both ends.

[plainswoman]

A scam? How do you figure that? The residents of the county identified senior care as a major concern during a series of meetings several years ago. The county then began a search for a private entity to build an assisted living facility in the area. When that proved unsuccessful, the county took on the job of building and owing themselves. there were meetings held about this venture, but the majority in attendance were in favor of the idea and very few voices in opposition showed up. Sound familiar? As in so many of these situations, the naysayers didn't start their complaining and protesting until the project was well under way.
The fact is, whether having the county own the facility is a good idea or a bad one, the county owns it and is struggling to make the mortgage payments. Something had to be done or else it would be shut, all the seniors who live there would be displaced and the employees would be jobless. Not to mention the fact the county would have a vacant building on its hands. Perhaps now that its future is secure, they can finish filling it up.