Nursing home not profitable, committee told

Bedford County Nursing Home's January financial report shows a profit of $31,123 for the month, and a profit of $52,888 for the fiscal year so far -- but county Finance Director Robert Daniel told members of Bedford County Financial Management Committee those figures are misleading.

"I don't think we have a profit," said Daniel, saying the nursing home is behind on some of its debts. He noted that the balance sheet shows $296,335 in current assets and $594,665 in current liabilities.

County commission member Joe Tillett, who chairs the financial management committee, said some of the nursing home's bills are more than 90 days past due.

Tillett met with nursing home administrator Wayne Schumann Tuesday afternoon to discuss the nursing home's financial situation. He said some staffing changes may need to be made, and said some jobs now being done by registered nurses could be done by licensed practical nurses instead.

Meanwhile, the committee continues to look at the county's financial picture. Daniel discussed the county's January tax revenue figures, but said the February figures, which won't be available until next month, will tell more of a tale.

The lion's share of property tax bills will be paid this month, and the sales tax revenue the county receives this month will reflect sales in the month of December, during the busy Christmas season. So this will be a critical month in determining the county's tax revenue, said Daniel.

Target spending areas

Daniel gave the committee the monthly breakdown of spending in several target areas. At the end of January, 58 percent of the budget year was past, so that figure was used as a comparison to determine whether spending is over or under budget.

Spending areas that were over budget:

Electric utilities, 69.19 percent

Food supplies, 68.81 percent -- Daniel said this reflected increasing food costs, which are the result of increasing fuel costs.

Vehicle maintenance, 65.60 percent

Spending areas that were under budget:

Natural gas, 47.57 percent

Travel, 38.77 percent -- County departments have cut back on travel expenses as a whole, but some individual line items are over the 58 percent mark, including several within the school system. Commissioner J.D. "Bo" Wilson questioned School Superintendent Ed Gray about a school board trip to a Tennessee School Boards Association meeting at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville.

Gray said school board members are required to attend some of the inservice training that took place at the TSBA meeting. Wilson asked whether board members might have commuted to the meeting on an unused school bus rather than staying at the hotel overnight.

Gasoline, 36.59 percent

Diesel, 32.34 percent

Legal services, 26.68 percent

"The days of wine and roses are over, folks," said Wilson.

Wilson said the county needs to carefully scrutinize end-of-year budget amendments. In the past, some departments would take money that was underspent in some operational line item and ask for permission to spend it on some special project or capital expenditure. But Wilson said such requests don't need to be rubber-stamped given how tight the county's fiscal situation is at present.

Looking 'grim'

Gray said that prospects for the school budget are troublesome as well.

"Next year's budget looks more grim than this year's," he said. Gray said the school system has been conservative in its spending, which has enabled the school system to furnish the new Learning Way Elementary School and the new building for Community High School.

Gray cautioned that the economic stimulus money announced for Bedford County by U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon's office may not turn out exactly as expected. He recalled a previous situation where the state announced in a news release that it would fund $400 pay raises for teachers. By the time the money trickled down to local school systems, it was less than that, and by the time taxes were taken out the actual impact on a teacher's take-home pay was even smaller.

Gray said some of the grant money also comes with staff development requirements that create additional costs for the school system.

Other discussion

• The committee voted to recommend a budget amendment of $67,500 for reroofing the Medical Arts Building. Last month, committee members thought that money could come from a fund of loan money repaid by the nursing home, but there's not enough in that fund to do the project.
• Daniel reported that the sheriff's department and Bedford County Emergency Medical Services have turned in new compensatory time policies. All county departments have until mid-March to turn in new policies to Daniel.
• Daniel presented a summary of worker's compensation losses for the county.
• The county highway department will take over waste disposal at the nursing home. Even with the cost of purchasing waste bins and compensating the highway department for an additional employee, this is expected to save money compared to the current contract with BFI.