At 11th Hour, Finance Committee Balks At Increased Price Tag For New Our Island Home

Just hours before Saturday's Annual Town Meeting, the Finance Committee has balked at the increased price tag for the proposed new Our Island Home skilled nursing facility.

The Finance Committee originally voted 6-3 in mid-February to endorse the project at a then-estimated cost of $105 million, and its positive motion is printed in the Annual Town Meeting warrant. But the town discovered in April that the final bid for the new 45-bed facility came in 20 percent higher than expected at $125 million.

On Thursday afternoon, the Finance Committee gathered to consider a technical amendment to its original motion to reflect the increased price tag for the project. Following a brief deliberation, two FinCom members who had originally supported the appropriation - Joanna Roche and Jeremy Bloomer - flipped and voted against the motion, resulting in a 5-4 decision in opposition to the technical amendment for the $125 million price tag.

Roche cited the increased cost as the reason she changed her mind.

She and Bloomer were joined by Finance Committee members Jill Vieth, Joseph Wright, and chair Denice Kronau in voting against the motion. Members Chris Glowacki, Stephen Maury, Rob Giacchetti, and Peter Schaeffer supported the measure. 

What happens now?

Town manager Libby Gibson indicated the Select Board may choose to put forward a positive motion that includes the technical amendment with the $125 million appropriation. That amendment will require a simple majority to pass at Town Meeting.

The full appropriation in Article 13, however, will require a two-thirds majority vote, as well as approval on the ballot during the annual town election later this month.

Several Finance Committee members raised concerns that the last-minute changes will only sow more confusion for voters as they consider the largest and most expensive municipal project ever undertaken by the town during what is expected to be an emotional debate on Town Meeting floor.

If the $125 million appropriation is ultimately endorsed at Town Meeting and on the ballot, it will fund the construction of a 60,000-square-foot, 45-bed new nursing facility at the Sherburne Commons campus off South Shore Road, complete with enclosed courtyards and photovoltaic solar arrays. Some rooms would be large enough to allow for the addition of a second bed should OIH need to increase capacity. The new building would allow Nantucket to remain the only municipality in Massachusetts that owns and operates its own nursing home.

Once construction is completed, the town would utilize the existing Our Island Home property on East Creek Road as a site for a new senior center once the new facility is opened.

Nantucket’s geography and the cost of land make it difficult, if not impossible, for a private organization to operate a nursing home on the island, meaning that without a town-run facility, it is likely that those in need of advanced, specialized nursing care would have to move to the mainland for support. Given the age and inadequacies of the current Our Island Home facility, town leaders believe Nantucket will eventually shutter the nursing home and get out of the business entirely if the voters reject the appropriation at Town Meeting in May.