Taking Care Of Our Own: Funding A New Our Island Home

To the editor: Thirty-five years ago, Rick was a new member of the town’s Finance Committee. He found it puzzling when learning about the town budget that items such as funding for human services, for a town nurse, and for a skilled-nursing home were included. While beneficial to the community, in Rick’s experience, such expenditures were not ordinarily part of municipal finances. When he asked FinCom Chair Phil Bartlett about this, Phil responded plainly: We take care of our own.

And we do.

Granted, the costs of a new Our Island Home (OIH) are formidable and have caused taxpayers to pause. Can we afford to build a new facility and to operate it going forward? Many voters question the costs, as they should.

Town administration and the members of the Select Board (SB) have worked hard to answer these questions. But judging by the recent discussion held by the SB, some board members appear ready to say no to a new OIH — which would also mean closing the current, antiquated facility, leaving those members of our community most in need of skilled nursing care with no choice but to leave the island.

Have we explored all the funding options? We don’t think so. Here are two ideas. There may be others.

First, let’s consider using funds from the annual housing override to pay for the housing component of OIH. Providing staff housing for OIH is a necessary part of the new plan, and leveraging existing housing funds to accomplish that could reduce the appropriation needed for a new OIH by approximately $13 million.

Add this money ($13 million) to what might be generated by the sale of the property on which the current OIH is located, and the total cost for a new OIH could be lowered significantly without compromising the project itself.

Second, let’s ask our town officials to consider submitting an article at next year’s Town Meeting that, if passed, would appropriate a portion of the capital funds necessary for a new OIH, but with a contingency: that the remaining capital must be raised privately, by a certain date. Failing that, public funding would be withdrawn, no new facility would be built, and when necessary, the existing facility would be closed.

This would be a true public-private partnership that would require leadership, commitment, and active participation from our Town officials, as well as from members of our community.

Numerous state and local governments have successfully secured private funding to help pay for costly public projects of similar scale. Nantucket could do the same for OIH. One tried-and-true approach is a simple split, where the town would pledge to cover 50 percent of the total capital costs, but only if matched by private funding.

With Nantucket’s proud history of philanthropy, there’s reason to be hopeful that an energetic, well-organized capital fundraising campaign – backed by a pledge of matching financial support from taxpayers, and with a hard deadline – would be successful here.

It will take a can-do attitude, with strong leadership from both our public and private sectors. We elected the members of the SB to be problem solvers. Let’s come together as a community and work toward this common goal.

After all, on Nantucket we take care of our own.

D. Anne and Rick Atherton