GETZVILLE, N.Y. — In a few weeks, more than 140 residents could be displaced. Elected officials joined with residents on Monday in Getzville to call on the State Health Department to stop the closure.
“Neither we, nor the Department of Health, can sit back and allow skilled workers to have their work pulled from under them, and neither us, nor the Department of Health, can allow our friends, our family and our neighbors (to) have their homes taken away from them,” Rep. Timothy M. Kennedy, D-Buffalo, said at a news conference.
Advocates for the facility said they hope Weinberg Campus will receive funding from the state. They also hope a transfer of ownership can be approved.
Christopher Koenig, president of Lineage Care Group, said the organization has partnered with Weinberg Campus for about two years. They want to keep the non-profit nursing home alive through receivership.
“The short game is stabilizing this facility and then advocating for the reimbursement moving forward to make sure that we can stabilize it for the future,” Koenig said. “When you walked around this campus, it was beautiful. It needs to have some sort of operating margin for the capital improvement that it needs.”
Koenig said he is “confident” that something can be done with the involvement of elected officials like Kennedy, State Sen. Sean Ryan, D-Buffalo, and Acting Buffalo Mayor Christopher P. Scanlon, who all attended the news conference.
“But the budget process is going to take a long time,” Koenig said.
Several residents spoke up during the news conference to say that Weinberg Campus is their home and the people there are their family. They have created a petition that the group plans on submitting to the state.
Union Vice President Grace Bogdanove said residents’ lives are at risk if the nursing home closes. She believes there is still time to save the historic facility if leaders act quickly.
“As more and more residents leave Weinberg Campus, the possibility of saving this campus decreases,” Bogdanove said. “Time is ticking. If we have not heard from the Department of Health by tomorrow (Tuesday), we will be picketing the DOH office.”