St. Joseph County floats new site for Portage Manor group home relocation

St. Joseph County officials say a potential partnership with a South Bend senior living center is the leading solution to the problem of where to relocate residents of Portage Manor health care facility.

The St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners paid Fort Wayne firm MKM Architecture $25,000 in May to run a "feasibility study" for a new Portage Manor site. The architect Dodd Kattman is considering the Healthwin site, which sits on county land off Darden Road just east of the St. Joseph River, for possible new construction.

Board President Carl Baxmeyer said the architect met with Healthwin officials to gauge their interest in expanding the facility's services to include assisted and independent living. The 153-bed center offers 24-hour care and rehabilitation services for older residents, with stay durations ranging from less than a month to years.

The feasibility study's results are expected by the beginning of December and will be made public, Baxmeyer said.

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Plans for Clay Township Park

In response to confusion among Clay Township residents at a Thursday night meeting, Baxmeyer held a press conference Friday to clarify the purpose of an agreement between the county and the township that was to be voted on this week.

The county plans to sell Clay Township Park, which is just north of Healthwin, to Clay Township for a nominal fee, rather than continue to lease it to the township. The park sits on 45 acres and features sporting fields, a disc golf course, a playground and walking trails along the river.

New health facility housing would not be built at the park, but directly to its south.

"We are continuing with the plan to turn the ownership of this land from the county to the township to ensure that this remains a park for as long as the township wants it to be a park," Baxmeyer said.

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Sean O'Brien, a Clay Township Board member, said during the press conference that he worries new construction to the south could degrade the quality of the Clay Township Park.

A swath of trees separates Healthwin from the park. O'Brien said the MKM architect recently proposed they could be cut down to make room for new housing.

"If those woods were going to be cut down, like the architect suggested that they would be," he said, "that would diminish the beauty of this park and it would detract from the usability of this park."

To address concerns, Baxmeyer said, a section was added to the agreement with Clay Township for the county to "maintain the current landscaping on the northern border of the Healthwin property to act as a buffer."

It's unclear whether new construction would still result in trees being cleared in the agreement. The plan was scheduled to be proposed Nov. 1 at the Board of Commissioners meeting, but Baxmeyer late Monday afternoon chose to cancel the meeting. The commission will next meet on Wednesday, Nov. 9.

In place of the canceled Tuesday meeting, commissioner Derek Dieter will hold a press conference to voice his displeasure with the "political games being played by Baxmeyer." Dieter says he wasn't consulted about the decision to cancel the meeting.

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Portage Manor financial woes

MKM Architecture's first proposal for a new Portage Manor facility this March was projected to cost about $41 million to build. But county officials determined that price was too steep, so the firm has been trying since May to pare down the figure by at least $9 million.

The current building, finished in 1907 on county-owned land off Portage Avenue just south of the Indiana Toll Road, has been deemed too costly to repair and to retrofit for Americans with Disabilities Act compliance.

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But Frank Fotia, the new president of the Portage Manor Board of Managers, last month called on the County Council to decide within six months whether to start construction on a new building. The oversight board has stressed it needs a plan to avoid displacing Portage Manor's more than 110 residents, who are either adults under 65 with mental or physical disabilities or older than 65.

Fotia gave the six-month timeline because the facility now has less than $1 million in cash and expects to continue losing at least $500,000 annually, though most of that loss is being temporarily offset by county reimbursements.

Since 2012, Portage Manor's cash reserves have fallen by about $2 million.

Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jordantsmith09

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: St. Joe County floats site near Darden Road for Portage Manor facility