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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2009 > March > 25 > Entry
Partners in Prime head says closure threats were “hyperbole”
From our Web site:
Partners in Prime’s chief officer “exaggerated” when he said last summer the organization would be “extinct” in the next five years if it lost a key contract.
In August 2008, the multi-million-dollar business of providing senior services to the county’s 60-and-older population — specifically case management and intake — was up for grabs.
The Council on Aging of Southwest Ohio administers programs to local seniors as part of its contract with the Butler County Elderly Services Board; the COA was looking to contract out some of those services for the next five years.
Hamilton-based LifeSpan was awarded the contract to provide intake and assessment services to local seniors after its $1.68 million proposal to do the work was approved by COA. That was compared to a consortium of Partners in Prime and Middletown and Oxford senior centers, whose bid came in at $2.11 million.
Prior to COA’s Aug. 22, 2008, decision to go with LifeSpan, Partners in Prime’s chief executive officer Stephen Schnabl said “The loss of (the) contract would mean that our organization and our senior centers (in Hamilton, Fairfield and West Chester Twp.) could face extinction in the next five years.”
The statement set off a firestorm of reaction from the community, especially seniors who wondered whether the centers they attend regularly would last.
Schnabl said this week he was “speaking in hyperbole” and that “I exaggerated.”
“It was a heat-of-the-moment comment,” Schnabl said of the August 2008 conversation with the JournalNews. “We’re a stable organization.”
A member of the organization’s board said although Schnabl’s passion for providing senior services is a benefit to the county, his comments last summer simply were untrue.
“I wouldn’t expect a comment like that to be in our five-year forecast,” said Board Member Randy Oppenheimer. “I don’t think we’re going to be extinct because of the loss of that contract.”
Schnabl and Oppenheimer said the financial viability of Partners in Prime is strong despite its headquarters being hit by an unexpected flood in December and a souring local and national economy.
Schnabl told West Chester Twp. Trustees Tuesday that Partners in Prime will hold the line this year when it comes to employee salaries thanks to increases in health care and utility costs.
“We have a budget, and we live within it,” Oppenheimer said. “We’ve been around for more than 50 years, and I think we’ll be here longer.”
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