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Nantucket Decides to Move Town-owned Skilled Nursing Home Away From the Water

Justine Paradis

Nantucket's only skilled nursing facility—and the state's only municipal nursing home—is moving away from its current waterfront location.

Selectmen voted last night to move "Our Island Home" next door to Sherbourne Commons, an assisted living facility near Nantucket’s south shore. The vote comes after almost a decade of analysis and discussion.
 
As we reported yesterday, the current location has a view of Nantucket harbor, but the building is outdated and needs to be rebuilt. The property is also at risk of storm surge.
 
But some voters think the harbor view is invaluable and that Selectmen's decision was premature. Catherine Stover is one of them.
 
“I think that it's pretty apparent that people don't know really what's going on, how they came to all these conclusions,” Stover said. “I think people are feeling really left out and angry, they don't understand what's happening.”
 
The Home faces other challenges. It operates with an annual deficit of about $4 million, and is subsidized by taxpayers. Selectman Matt Fee thinks the relocation is the easy part.
 
“I think that was expected; we've done a lot of work. I think it's a good decision,” he said. “I had some concerns, and it's more on operational and financial going forward. It doesn't do any good to spend $30 million for a building if we don't have people to staff it, or if it's so expensive that we don't maintain it and citizens don't get a decent level of care.”
 
The island's voters will get to decide how much the view—and the financial situation—matter at Special Town Meeting in October.