Island Nursing Home leaders urge towns to consider aid as facility faces large deficit

Representatives of the Island Nursing Home (INH) told Stonington Selectmen that the facility is facing a substantial budget shortfall and staffing crisis and asked the towns for help to preserve local skilled nursing capacity.

At meetings through 2022, INH board members and supporters described a deficit that they said ranged in the “hundreds of thousands” of dollars and urged municipal participation to avoid losing nursing beds. Skip Greenlaw, who spoke for INH, said the organization faces operating deficits and uncertainty about Medicare and other reimbursement levels, and asked the towns to consider financial support or housing assistance linked to reopening or stabilizing services. Leon Weed, who joined Greenlaw in the discussion, said the petition to reopen the facility would require clear town-meeting authorization if funding were sought by warrant.

Town Manager Billings told the board the Selectmen need specific, verifiable budget figures before committing municipal funds and noted the board’s limited authority to fund ongoing operating deficits without a town-meeting vote. The Selectmen repeatedly asked INH representatives for up-to-date financial statements and clarity on whether the shortfall figures included recent inflation and staffing-cost increases; the INH representatives said some figures under discussion were estimates and that a formal petition process would be needed to place any appropriation on a town warrant.

The board discussed housing as a related need: INH and community members said housing shortages were among the factors impeding staffing recruitment and retention. Bill Cohen, an INH board member who attended a later meeting, said the INH board planned additional outreach to island leaders about housing and board recruitment but did not present a formal financing plan to the Selectmen.

No formal appropriation or binding commitment was made by the Selectmen during the meetings summarized here. The board instructed Town Manager Billings to ask INH for precise, current financials and to notify the Selectmen when INH sought a petition or warrant article so the town could consider any voter decision.

The Selectmen also noted the procedural steps a town would need to take to place an appropriation on a warrant and emphasized that the town cannot unilaterally fund recurring operating deficits without voter approval.