LifeWays to Solicit $15.5 Million Bond from Hillsdale County Commissioners
Commissioners rejected the bond proposal twice in 2024
LifeWays CEO Maribeth Leonard will appear before the Hillsdale County Board of Commissioners for the third time to request that it approves a $15.5 million bond for the construction of a new facility at the corner of Beck and Industrial.
The commissioners have voted on two requests from LifeWays for a county-backed bond: once at their April 23, 2024, meeting and again during their November 12, 2024, meeting. The motions failed, with commissioners Doug Ingles, Steve Lanius, and Brad Benzing voting against both times.
Now, with District 2 Commissioner Kevin Collins having replaced Steve Lanius, the LifeWays Board hopes the commissioners will pass the bond on the third attempt.
Under the terms of the contract as presented in November, LifeWays would agree to pay “all principal of and interest on the Bonds.”
The county would own and lease the facility to LifeWays during the length of the bond, and LifeWays would be responsible “for all costs and expenses of operation, maintenance and administration of the Facility.”
The county would transfer the title of the property to LifeWays if the bond were paid off in full. If LifeWays cannot pay for the lease, then the bond payments would become the county’s obligation.
The commissioners have not released the agenda for their next regular meeting on February 25 at 9:00 a.m., but the meeting notes from a LifeWays Facilities Committee meeting said “Ms. Leonard plans to appear before the BOCC [Board of County Commissioners] at a meeting later in February.”
The LifeWays Facilities Committee, chaired by District 3 Commissioner Mark Wiley, met on February 10th, 2025, to discuss the Hillsdale building project at 3310 Beck Rd., among other items.
During the meeting, Leonard updated the committee about financing options and reported that “the entire cost of the project has been budgeted; should any of the aforementioned moneys be received, they will be applied to reduce the overall debt,” according to the meeting minutes.
Leonard said LifeWays has identified several funding avenues:
a U.S. Budget Appropriations Committee allocation
the New Market Tax Credit
a US Department of Agriculture Rural Development Grant
A loan application from County National Bank.
LifeWays continues to pursue government-backed loans to save on interest. The bond proposal previously brought before the commissioners estimated that the county could secure an interest rate between 3.75% and 4.25%, while a commercial construction loan could run between 5.25% and 11.25%.
The commercial loan, according to LifeWays’ estimates, would cost $22.7 million over 20 years—or between 0.745% and 0.894% of the mental health authority’s operating budget.
The county bond would cost $18.2 million over 20 years—or between 0.686% and 0.753% of the mental health authority’s operating budget.
In other words, LifeWays wants the county commissioners to take on the risk of a $15.5 million bond to save itself between 0.059% and 0.141% of its operating budget over 20 years.
A cursory extrapolation of these budgetary projections shows that LifeWays plans on a budget exceeding $2 billion over the next 20 years or more than $100 million per year. The county, in contrast, expects to receive less than $16 million in revenue this year.
The proposed office building would cover 28,000 square feet and include a “Crisis Stabilization Unit” and an “Integrated Health Clinic.” These services will allow LifeWays to become a “Certified Community Health Clinic.”
Last time the bond proposal came forward, Circuit Court Judge Sara Lisznyai, Sheriff Scott Hodshire, and Hillsdale Hospital President and CEO Jeremiah Hodshire all signed a letter of support.
All three letters contain the same text. Lisznyai’s letter is pictured below.
Joshua Paladino
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Appendix:
If a contractor to the state, whose budget far eclipses that of our county, wants to save a fraction of a percentile of its budget by shedding risk on the taxpayers of our county, the obvious question is why all this politicking, re-applying against repeated denials, and outright finagling to get us to build them a building?
If their performance was anything like what is promised in their literature, teaming with Lifeways might seem appealing to other guarantors besides the residents of Hillsdale. As it is, I've met zero persons in Hillsdale who've gotten good service and positive outcomes from using Lifeways' services, but I have met persons from many families that have been disrupted, impoverished, and bereft of family members because of how Lifeways inserts itself between developmentally disabled persons and their traditional family care networks. If their go-to was supporting family care, again, there might be more support for Lifeways, but their insistence that their mandate is separating persons from family care networks before and while any care is administered might rightly not be seen favorably.
The fact that Lifeways has services for Intellectually Disabled persons but none even in referrals for Developmentally Disabled people means that, structurally, they disserve 34%-67% ) of disabled persons in Hillsdale. Persons with ID but no DD get care. Persons with ID and DD get care -for their IDs but care providers ignorant of the impacts of their DDs ensure the individuals are not successful in care plans because of ignored DDs. Persons with DDs and no IDs get no care but free assistance emancipating from guardianships EVERY TIME THEY GET INTO THE SYSTEM.
Is this an organization we should be supporting, or do we need a MiDOGE to address why they're charging $75/15min session to manage cases?