UNITY — With the estimate for renovations and additions to the county’s nursing facility rising to as much as $57 million, county officials are discussing the next steps as they try to determine how much money the county could receive from federal and state sources and when.
Potentially, a bond request for some of the cost could be presented to the full delegation of state representatives in early spring so the work could start in late summer or early fall, state Rep. John Cloutier, D-Claremont, said this week.
Cloutier said the “working group” of four legislators that was formed last summer to carefully examine the cost of the project will meet with the delegation’s executive finance committee later this month and possibly reach an agreement on a bond proposal. If so, Cloutier said a special meeting of the full delegation could be held to vote on a bond.
“We hope there may be some federal and state money,” Cloutier said. “The working group and EFC need to hash out more details. There may be a way to phase it in.”
Sullivan County Manager Derek Ferland said there are a lot of moving parts to the additional funding question. As of now, the county has about $11 million it can devote to the project. He said the delegation could authorize the full amount for the project but only bond for 12 to 18 months of the work and hopefully get state and federal aid at some point.
“The question is, is that what we want to do,” Ferland said. “If so, we have to figure out how much we want to bond for? There is an appetite to do something the next couple of months because interest rates are only going to go up, so the longer we wait the more expensive it will be. We need to see what is possible from the state but our intent is to pass something to get started.”
Ferland said U.S. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., has sought $2 million in grant money from the federal government but Congress needs to pass a budget and there is no guarantee the county would get the money. Another funding option, N.H. House bill 1525, was sponsored by delegation member Judy Aron, R-Acworth. The bill, which would establish a capital reserve fund for county nursing homes, has been referred to interim study by the House Ways and Means Committee.
“It won’t pass this year but it has generated conversation from some committee members encouraging us to seek one-time money from the state because the state has its own ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) fund and it is pretty significant,” Ferland said.
In late January, The Logan Company of Concord, Mass., sent a letter to Mary Bourque, Director of Facilities and Operations or Sullivan County Health Care, explaining that the July 2020 “guaranteed maximum price” ($44.4 million) for construction alone from Milestone Engineering and Construction is estimated to increase $6.2 million or 14 percent because of supply chain disruption, increased demand for construction services and labor shortages.
The county hired Logan, a construction consulting firm, in November to review the construction documents and project phasing, among other things, and make recommendations going forward. Ferland said when so called “soft costs” including permitting, contingency and fees are added in, the final cost is in the neighborhood of $57 million.
The delegation rejected slightly less expensive proposals previously because of the price tag. A “working group” of four legislators and one county commissioner was formed last summer to explore cutting the cost to $35 million.
Ferland said the group concluded in its report to the full delegation in the fall was that the scope of work could not be reduced, redesigning the project would add to the price and a separate location with a new nursing home would also cost more.
“So the plan that was designed was ultimately considered to be the best,” he said.
The work would include gutting the nursing home’s Stearns building, making improvements to the MacConnell building and demolishing the Sanders building to clear space for an 82,000-square-foot addition.
Ferland said there are really four scenarios right now: getting state money over the next few months; getting state money a year from now, perhaps with another bill; getting a lesser amount and approving a second bond; or getting nothing and having to bond for the rest of the project.
“It is how we assess each of these pathways is really going to drive what the delegation decides to do,” he said. “If the worst case scenario materializes and we get nothing, are we prepared to pay the full freight so we have to assess the impact on taxpayers. Those are going to be the questions that have to be answered.”
The Sullivan House on Sullivan Street in downtown Claremont could be ready to accept residents sometime in March, Ferland said. The transitional housing facility will be for up to 40 individuals who have completed their sentence at the House of Corrections and the Traditional Re-entry and Inmate Life Skills, or TRAILS program.
There has been a delay in getting permanent power to the building because Eversource was having supply chain problems getting a transformer.
“We were finally told by Eversource they were going to release a transformer for our project and we expect it by the end of next week,” Ferland said.
With permanent power, Ferland said they can connect the HVAC systems and repair the elevator. He said there is about a month’s worth of work remaining to be done on the four story building just off Opera House Square.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com
