Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 28, 1995                   TAG: 9503280062
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

WARM HEARTH BILL SIGNED

Gov. George Allen signed a bill Saturday to allow the retirement community to apply for permission to build a 60-bed nursing home. Virginia has had a moratorium on such applications for seven years.

Warm Hearth President John Sankey said the nonprofit retirement community will start the application process this summer, but doesn't expect a decision from the state any sooner than "well into" next year.

Warm Hearth will apply for a certificate of need from the state Health Department. The application will be the subject of a public hearing before a regional regulatory board before going to the state health commissioner for a decision.

Sankey said the nursing center will be part of a three-building, "comprehensive health and wellness campus" for which Warm Hearth will unveil plans this spring. The retirement community also is planning a fund-raising campaign to run concurrent with applying for the certificate of need.

Warm Hearth's success with the governor's office is the result of a bipartisan team effort by state Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, and Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg.

The bill Allen signed is not the one introduced by Shuler, which both the House and Senate approved. Nor is it the Senate version introduced by Trumbo, which died in committee. Instead, it's a third bill introduced by another legislator that Trumbo and Shuler amended in the waning days of the General Assembly session as a backup.

They were worried that their original bills would be weighed down with too many amendments adding other exceptions, which would lead Allen to oppose it. That appears to be what happened with Shuler's bill, which Allen did not sign. The governor's deadline to sign bills was Monday. The General Assembly meets in a one-day veto session next week.

The new law, which takes effect July 1, grants exceptions to the state's moratorium on new nursing home beds for Warm Hearth and a Scott County nursing home.

Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, introduced the successful measure, House Bill 2425. He is the twin brother of Jerry Kilgore, Allen's secretary of public safety.

Keywords:
GENERALK ASSEMBLY 1995