Illinois’ troubled Champaign County Nursing Home racked up another $200,000 in debt in a single month, and after being cut off by its supplier, was down to its last eight rolls of toilet paper.
Now county board chair Pius Weibel is under fire for approving emergency payments to cover the delivery of more bathroom supplies, including TP and hand soap, according to CBS affiliate WCIA.
The home owes more than $100,000 to its supply company, which had cut off deliveries pending payment. Weibel told the television station that nursing home staff were buying toilet paper with a credit card at a local store.
Weibel said he talked with the county administrator in mid-April and authorized an emergency payment to restart shipments at a cost of more than $8,000.
“I decided that I think we should have our supplies at the nursing home fully supplied to protect them,” Weibel said, according to the television station.
Late last month, the board voted to loan up to $210,000 to the nursing home, which needed money to cover $100,000 in payroll and other expenses.
At its April 19 meeting, the board voted down automatically renewing a contract with SAK Management, which, according to one Republican quoted by the News-Gazette, was meant to send a message to the operator about its handling of vendor payments.
Some Republicans also griped that the board chair, a Democrat, approved supply spending without consulting the remainder of the elected body.
“We can’t have a single individual in charge of spending county money,” board member Brooks Marsh told WCIA. “This was not a lot of money, but then, what do we call an emergency, a vendor demanding money? So then all of a sudden, we spend thousands? Hundreds of thousands?”
In an email Thursday, Weibel told other board members they should not discuss the home’s financial situation so publicly.
The county is trying to sell the facility, but it received only one bid — for $11 million. The offer is being reviewed through May 1.
