Advisory Committee discusses Our Island Home survey, urges clearer cost information

Committee Chairman Peter Hallie opened a discussion Oct. 11 about a town survey concerning Our Island Home, the island’s long-term care facility, and urged committee members and the public to review the survey and consider responding.

Members voiced concern that the survey’s three broad options — rebuild, repair, or do nothing — provide insufficient information for residents to make an informed judgment. “It's pretty simplistic,” Hallie said of the questionnaire, and several members urged that the town supply cost estimates and options to accompany a public poll.

Committee members and public commenters said the critical issue is financing and the detailed service mix of the facility. Patty Duester and others said the town should consider whether assisted-living capacity or skilled nursing is the primary local need; Don Green and others suggested a broader assessment of senior services before committing to a rebuilding plan. A speaker with long experience visiting nursing homes said Our Island Home provides both skilled nursing and short rehabilitation stays, not assisted living alone.

Several members recommended that individuals respond to the survey’s comment field to register the committee’s concerns, while stopping short of the committee taking an institutional position. Gary Biller said he had filled out the survey and left comments pointing out that conducting a poll without cost and financing information is “not very useful.”

The committee did not take a formal position on the survey but encouraged members and the public to visit the facility and to use the survey’s comment field to ask for more detailed cost and financing scenarios.

The committee moved to other agenda items after completing the Our Island Home discussion and scheduled a follow-up meeting for mid-November.