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EBENSBURG — Cambria County is hiring five full-time workers to watch over smokers inside the smoking hut at Laurel Crest Rehabilitation & Special Care Center — a task officials admit will burn more than $100,000 this year.

Commissioners call it a cost-saver compared with their current method of monitoring smokers at the facility, a state requirement because the Department of Health doesn’t want nursing home residents lighting up alone.

They say it is a “short-term remedy” — one that could lead to a smoking ban at the facility.

“Yes, this will cost $105,000,” President Commissioner P.J. Stevens said Thursday. “But we’re not going to go in there and ban smoking overnight. We don’t want to add to residents’ problems by denying them of the one thing that gives them pleasure at this point in their lives.”

County officials estimate that about 20 of the 286 residents are smokers.

With five attendants earning $8.34 an hour, $17,350 annually plus benefits, the cost averages $5,287 per resident smoker, according to figures provided by Human Resources Director Ron Baker.

It’s money that’s not reimbursable, commissioners said.

Commissioners estimate that it cost $120,000 more to meet the state mandate previously by assigning other employees, often paid overtime, to accompany smokers outside.

Valley View Home in Blair County banned smoking in and around the home several years ago.

The five to 10 residents who smoked when the decision was made are “grandfathered,” meaning they can smoke outside while accompanied by security personnel, employee Carolyn Frye said.

New admissions are told up front that they will not be permitted to smoke if they want to live at the home, she said.

‘‘Eventually, it will be totally smoke-free,” she said.

Stevens said discussion continues about the same possibility at Laurel Crest, but a plan and policy must be implemented first.

Mirror Staff Writer David Hurst is at 946-7457.

 

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