FEB, 2024

WALNUT ACRES IS NO LONGER FOR SALE
AND IT HASN'T BEEN FOR SALE FOR MORE THAN 6 MONTHS!!
After getting access to some County Board correspondence through FOIA, and doing some digging around on the internet, the following photos tell the story.

IS it a case of failed leadership?... IS it a story of fraud and deception?.... IS it a case of the members that want to sell Walnut Acres so badly, that they hid this information and pretended even into October that there was a sale in the near future? Along with the photos posted are 2 video clips from last Sept and October (2023) clearly showing Chairman Helms was still pushing the narrative that Walnut Acres was for sale and a Town Hall meeting was being planned soon. 

Whatever you call it, these actions pushed the census down for much of last year, which ultimately cost the citizens of Stephenson County money and sabotaged the viability of Walnut Acres.

As of February 18, 2024, no one on the Stephenson County Board, including Chairman Helms and our State's Attorney Carl Larson has made any statements addressing these findings. Considering the harm to our county by keeping the potential sale in the news and driving down the census it's not surprising. This has taken money out of every tax-paying citizen's pocket in our county. 

Send an email and ask for a full public disclosure that Walnut Acres is NO LONGER FOR SALE. Tell them to stop the charades. Tell them to let TCM find a full-time administrator, as stated in their contract. Stop getting into the middle of that.

These are our questions:

• Contract  with Helios (real estate broker) expired 90 days after it was signed - January 20, 2023    
   
• The Letter of Intent signed by Upward Care - June 16th, 2023 - earnest money due within 5 days of signing was never paid.
   
• How  does our Chairman, Scott Helms, the President of the Pearl City Bank, not check that an escrow check was issued
   
• How  does our States Attorney, Carl Larson not tell the Board members that these contracts were expired and the LOI was not perfected, leaving it voided
   
• How does our County Administrator, Georgia Newcomer not understand or question if these contracts are still good
   
• Who should have vetted the buyers and realized that 6 of the nursing homes they said they owned in 2023 were foreclosed on in 2020  
   
• Who should have looked up the addresses of these companies and realized they were empty offices, in a New Jersey industrial park
   
• Why did Chairman Helms continue to announce in meetings throughout last year, that this sale was “any day”
   
• Why was time wasted in meetings interviewing law firms to represent us in a potential sale?
   
• This has hurt Walnut Acres and our community and takes money out of our pockets. If the census wasn't reduced because of the constant talk of selling, we would be even more solvent.
   
• Why has Scott Helms decided to set up a 2 step process for hiring a permanent administrator, instead of letting Transitional Care Management (TCM) do the hiring as their contract states? They have said multiple times, they are not capable of running a nursing home. It’s why they hired TCM.
   
• It's death by a thousand cuts and it needs to stop now
   
• We want a public announcement by Scott Helms that Walnut Acres is NO LONGER FOR SALE and will be left alone to let TCM do their job of management and hiring

Chairman Helm's response: 

After spending all of 2023 attempting to sell Walnut Acres, knowing he didn't have the 2/3rds vote he needed to sell and knowing there was an IL state law stating, that if you erected the building with a referendum, you must have a referendum to sell. Knowing that any sale could lead to a costly lawsuit and knowing the buyer never wrote the escrow check last June and that the broker's contract was expired. 

During Helm's Chair report in October 2023, Scott stated "I’ve spoken to Andrew Wittenaur and also to a principal at Upward Care and they’re very committed to the Town hall meetings. They’re hoping to have a date for November or December at the worst and they are hoping to have a date, back to me by later this week.  After speaking with them, they’re more committed than ever to the process and they are looking forward to completing this and providing good jobs for the employees out there and providing a good home for the residents." 

Despite all the evidence, this was Helm's response after our Press Conference to the reporter:

"This was a blatant and shameless showing of political gamesmanship and self-promotion," says Scott Helms (R), Stephenson County board chairman.

Helms continues by stating "Rather than taking the high road and focusing on quality care, the local Democrat Party is using the most vulnerable among us as political pawns for the upcoming March and November elections."

While the chairman remains "fully committed to providing quality care to the residents of Walnut Acres and maintaining jobs," Helms says Wednesday's press conference was "disappointing and quite frankly, disgusting."

Feb 20, 2025
Channel 13
Nathan Langley
https://www.wrex.com/news/digging-deeper-freeport-residents-struggle-with-indecisive-walnut-acres-future/article_74545ab4-cf86-11ee-8006-2f987a97fadf.html?fbclid=IwAR3k2Unj5uUTGHO6etVBmc1spskVarCPL3xTQLFRp8k384celbHGMfkY8VY