Select board, finance committee back new Our Island Home design despite projected multi‑million annual shortfall

The Select Board and members of the Finance Committee voted 6–3 on Feb. 11 to support a warrant article to proceed with design and construction of a new Our Island Home skilled‑nursing facility at Sherburne Commons, moving the question to the town meeting ballot and a subsequent debt authorization vote.

The town manager, Libby (Town Manager), and the town finance director, Brian (Finance Director), presented a town pro forma and said the project budget request before the board is for borrowing authorization that the pro forma models at up to about $112 million in total project costs (the article request itself is listed at $105 million) and that the town’s five‑year operating forecast shows an increasing annual operating subsidy. Brian summarized that, under the assumptions in the pro forma, annual net cash shortfalls could rise to roughly $14.5 million by year five and that principal and interest on a 25‑year borrowing for the modeled amount would be on the order of $170 million in total debt service.

Why it matters: Select Board and…