State having trouble finding vets home boss

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2003 | 10:37 a.m.

The top two posts at a state nursing home for veterans in Boulder City have proven hard to fill, the interim director told the statewide agency that oversees services to veterans.

And he doesn't see an immediate solution.

Tom Feeback, who has run the nursing home since John Sias resigned last September, said Monday he was asked to stay on until Feb. 14, but there is no guarantee that the job will be filled by then.

"If we don't find someone by then, who knows what they'll do?" Feeback said outside the Veterans Services Commission meeting.

"Maybe they'll ask me to stay on some more." A new administrator was supposed to be hired by last Friday.

Two candidates who were offered the director's job turned it down. A third is currently being considered.

A candidate for the top nursing job who was supposed to start this week turned down that job as well.

"To be honest, I'm at a loss as to why people turned the jobs down," Stephen G. Long, deputy executive director for the office of Veterans Services, said.

Long said there was no deadline for filling the position, and he hoped the situation would be resolved soon.

Commission member Brad Benson expressed concern about what he thought were reasons for the delay in finding someone to take the reins at the nursing home.

"The salary seems to be way too low and the position is non-classified," he said.

Long said the agency had done a nationwide survey and found that administrators at nursing homes for veterans earned between $40,000 and $140,000.

"We're in the 70s, or somewhere in the middle," he said.

As for the job being considered non-classified, Chuck Fulkerson, executive director for the statewide office, said that changing it to classified may be considered in the coming weeks.

This would mean that the administrator would be given permanent status after passing a one-year probation period.

The ongoing lack of resolution for the nursing home includes having interviewed nine candidates, recommending three, and having two decline the offer during the last five months, Long said. He declined to name the third candidate currently being considered for the position.

Feeback said the current situation may be harder on the nursing home's staff than on its 44 residents.

"It's kind of hard to work for people when they may not be there tomorrow," he said.