Vernon County Republicans

Meets 1st Monday, monthly, 5:30pm, at the First Christian Church fellowship hall.  

Contact vcrcmo@gmail.com for more information. 

Coffee & Conversation with Mayor Knox

Meets the 4th Thursday of each month, 8:00am to 9:00am at Precision Coffee. Contact the Chamber for more information. 417-667-5300

Barone Closure - The City Council Refused to Step In

The City Council refused to utilize its authority to step in, expand the Long Term Care Board, give control to a group of business people working to prevent its closure, rein in out of control spending, streamline functions, and secure additional funding. The letter below was sent to council members from the families and advocates for this facility. Barone is the ONLY free standing Alzheimer's Memory Care Facility in the entire state of Missouri. Advocates are now working to find a private buyer for the center.

Date:         September 14, 2022

To:             Mayor Knox and Council Members

From:        The Barone Family & Advocates

Subject:    Tuesday’s Council Meeting 9/6/22

Mayor Knox and Councilwoman Gallagher, we would like to thank you both for your support of our efforts to save Barone. Your concern and your courage at the September 6th council meeting is appreciated. We think if Councilman Miles had been there, your voices would have carried the day. We regret his absence, but are grateful for your efforts.

Our response to Councilman Eberhard’s irritation with the limited applications presented is to say you got applications from the people we trust. Time is critical, and no one is beating down the doors to be on the Long Term Care Board. Your “handpicked board” wasted nine months of opportunity. They did nothing to cut waste, reduce spending, or find money. They blamed lack of grant money on our economic developer. Our five might have made the difference. We will never know. Your NO vote robbed them and us of the chance. You say you care, Mr. Eberhard, but you angrily dismissed our support for the proposed new board members because we didn’t ask your permission before recommending them. Your actions don’t match your words.  Now, you are telling people to “trust you” and “give you thirty days”.

You forfeited our trust on Tuesday.

To Councilman Vickers, we will simply say we are shocked and appalled by Tuesday’s rude behavior. The disregard for citizens of this community is reprehensible. Calling us a “mob” and dismissing our efforts with comments like “you think you’re the smartest people in the room” is belittling, condescending rhetoric that had no place in a council meeting. We came to you with a proposed solution, and you couldn’t wait to slap our hands, and put us in timeout. 

You have also lost our trust and support.

The five people we recommended earned our trust, and that is the reason you received five applications. These are business people who could have provided one last chance to salvage this disaster. They have uncovered issues, waste, and possible sources for funding that the existing board was at a loss to do. At a recently recorded LTCB meeting, our board asked yours several serious questions and received nonsensical responses. Here are just a few examples: (1) Q. Why haven’t you looked for funding? A: We have! We contacted the economic developer early on, and he only recently got back to us! (So…it’s Ben’s fault?)  (2) Q: What is your plan to mitigate the trauma these people will endure, per Maureen Short’s council meeting discussion? A: We’re going to drive them around, move their belongings, and take them to Moore-Few….. (That’s what passes for a serious plan?) (3) Comment by Mr. Wells: Maybe we’ll build a whole new Barone next to the hospital. Q: Are you talking about the Lovinger property? A: Yes. Q: Are you not aware LTC leased that property to NRMC, and it transfers to them in fifteen years from date of purchase? A: What? It’s leased?  

Additionally, one of our proposed board members pointed out at the council meeting the ARPA ordinance contained almost $40,000 for possibly unneeded software PLUS an additional $2600 ongoing monthly fee. That individual suggested you table the ordinance and get answers before approving such a large amount of money. Instead, you ignored the suggestion and showed all of us who’s in charge by approving it anyway. Our board members have since confirmed it appears not to be needed. As Barone’s doors close, Moore-Few already has electronic charting software. Per their custodian of records, “Both buildings "chart" electronically. There is some overlap with paper documents  needed in a physical chart”. Is there another reason to still spend $40,000? We don’t know, and neither do you. Our efforts to uncover the truth get stonewalled at every opportunity, but certainly the council could have paused long enough to get answers. The same is true of the additional equipment Barone staff added to the list. If they move to Moore-Few, are those items still needed? Yet more prudent questions with no fiscally responsible answers.

Two members of our proposed board toured Moore-Few on September 8th. We will start by saying the sterile environment needed for Alzheimer’s patients is totally unfair to existing Moore-Few residents and further proof this “plan” is inappropriate for housing two drastically different levels of care. Moore-Few still did not have working locks on doors, glass removed from pictures, pictures screwed down, locks on interior doors, hot water issues solved in resident rooms, puzzle pieces within easy grasp removed, and they still plan to give Barone residents will have free roam of the entire facility. Regardless of the ongoing dangers, family members are now receiving calls weekly asking if we are moving our loved ones to Moore-Few.

Note: “We will not make a decision until we know safety is not an issue, and that day has not yet arrived”.

We are angry and disappointed, and the purpose of this memo is to let two of you know you don’t get to be bullies without at least receiving a response from the bullied. You, Mr. Eberhard and you, Mr. Vickers, do not get to speak so disrespectfully to the Barone family members without a reply. We are the people you are accountable TO, and we will not forget how little you think of us.

Finally, we hope you act to rein in the entity that is really at the center of the issues surrounding medical care problems in Nevada, and that is NRMC. We all agree we need some version of a hospital in our community, but the hospital in its current form is a cancer devouring everything in its path. “Borrowing” over $3,000,000 has killed Barone, Moore-Few is on life support, and after it, too, is dead and gone, what is left to gobble up? Will taxpayers be expected to again cough up funding while hospital leadership refuses to face facts and does nothing to change course? Is the rumor NRMC plans to purchase the medical clinic true? Are they to be the next victim? If it is true, how is it NRMC can purchase yet another entity but doesn’t have the funds to repay LTC? We hope the council won’t take the same hands-off attitude and wait until it is too late to finally act. If an ordinance needs rewriting to give you the ability to step in, then rewrite it and do so.

We are fed up, and this town is fed up.

Sincerely,

The Barone Family & Advocates