Beautiful Ohio

The new homes I suspect.

A second post about my "home town or really county."  Muskingum county has determined to close the county home.  This is so even though the citizens passed a level last year to maintain the county home for five years.  A new county commissioner has taken office and his position is:  "The county should not be in active competition with private nursing homes"  this is of course a conclusion, not an argument.  This is assisted by a nursing home owner who has fought for a couple of years in court to decertify the county home.  I suspect that there has been more going on here for longer then I have been aware, since several years ago the county moved all of the clients out of the country home that was owned by the country and into a building only leased by the country.

My wife volunteers at the county home and she has been told that last time the patients were moved several died (merely because of their age and they couldn't deal, well I guess that is the way the cookie crumbles, and sorry for your.....death). 

There is an argument that there are enough beds in the country to take all of the old people, so no big deal.  Fungible elders, widgets if you were.  It matters not what will happen to those who will occupy the beds, nor what will happen to those who have made friends.  After all they are money to the private owners so if they made friends at the county home (which incidentally is an incredibly well kept place and staffed with very dedicated workers) and their friends can't come with them.  Fuck 'em they'll be dead soon enough anyway.

(An aside the old country home had animals living in the home, they were not allowed in the new one.)

The second interesting thing that is going on here (rumor has it) is that the very same county commissioner has determined that it is time that a creche be placed on the court house lawn again, after several years of not having one there.   An interesting position, and one as an atheist I really don't give much of a shit about, except putting only a nativity scene without other symbols of the holidays is something that the Supreme Court has frowned on in the past.

On the other hand dealing with these rural politicians who seem to think they are god can be interesting to say the least.  Back when I worked for legal aid we were continually running into towns and cities that would turn off the city water or gas service to a residence without notifying the actual person living there that was going to happen.  Now the interesting thing about that is that there was a Supreme Court case which said that notice had to be given.  That case came through the 6th Circuit (it covers Ohio) and was pretty clear.  There were several District Court cases from the Southern District of Ohio that said they same thing, including a couple that had been filed and won by my legal aid. 

So I would go to meet with the law director and some of the city councilmen and perhaps the mayor and I would bring my cases and say see:  All you have to do is give people notice and give them a couple of days to see if they can come up with some money (normally the slumlord would have stopped paying at that point and that is why the water was being shut off).  In addition, if we actually filed a case in federal court then the client would not only be entitled damages but legal aid would be entitled to attorney fees.  In every single case they refused to enter into the agreement and we were forced to sue and we always won.  The law be damned.