Sullivan County residents are demanding answers on the abrupt closure of the Care Center at Sunset Lake in Liberty.
Sullivan County and the New York State Department of Health announced last Wednesday that the facility will close due to the county’s financial and administrative challenges.
“This is not something the County wanted to do, but our challenging finances and the lack of ability to transfer operations to our consulting firm has left us no choice but to initiate the closure process,” said District 2 Legislator and Legislature Chair Nadia Rajsz. “The majority of my colleagues and I agreed that taxpayers cannot afford to continue the costly operation of the Care Center while facing enormous revenue losses and quickly increasing costs throughout County government.”
At last Thursday’s tense county legislature meeting, residents repeatedly asked county legislators how the decision was made and why the public had no involvement.
District 5 Legislator Cat Scott said that legislators voted to close the Care Center during a closed-door executive session on March 26, 2026. She says legislators went into executive session to discuss contracts and had no plan to take a vote.
“It happened so quickly that some of us were in shock, and it was a 5-4 [vote],” said Scott, who chairs the county’s Health & Human Services Committee. Scott said Legislators Brian McPhillips, Matt Matt McPhillips, Luis Alvarez, and herself voted against closing the facility.
But District 9 Legislator Terry Blosser-Bernardo said she wasn’t present during the vote, leaving both legislators and the public confused how the vote could have passed without a majority.
While the state’s Open Meeting Law requires minutes to be taken of all formal votes during executive sessions, there has not been any public record of the March 26, 2026 session’s vote, date, or summary published on county records.
County officials said that after the decision was made, the state’s health department immediately put in place a gag order which prohibited them from talking about the decision with the public or media.
READ: Sullivan County Care Center at Sunset Lake to Close After Years of Financial, Management Woes
The Care Center has long faced financial challenges and brought in Infinite Care, a private rehabilitation center administrative contractor, to manage operations at the facility in 2021. Since then, the facility’s health ratings have declined. The Care Center’s most recent listed federal health inspection from 2024 shows 19 health citations (more than double the average number of health citations in New York state).
Infinite Care announced in July it would leave its consulting role, leaving legislators questions on how it would transfer operations back to the county.
Families scramble to find new care
Sullivan County resident Jay Azzato has a 73-year-old brother, Mark, currently living at the Care Center. It’s taken Azzato and his family more than a year and a half to find permanent senior care. He says they’re scrambling to figure out where Mark will go next.
“What are we gonna do when our hands and feet don’t work? Where are they gonna put us?” said Azzato. “Why should another county be taking care of residents that lived here all their lives?”
Azzato says he’s contacted several local nursing homes in the area that said they didn’t have an available bed for his brother. Mark had a middle cerebral artery stroke nearly three years ago that’s left him non-verbal and requiring intense medical attention. Still, Jay says the staff at the Care Center are able to make his brother feel welcomed and taken care of.
“He loves it there as much as he can love it, even though he’s in the condition he’s in, and they take very, very good care of him there,” said Azzato.
The Care Center currently has 90 long-term residents and 86 employees (the facility previously had 93 residents but three individuals have already been transferred to other facilities, according to Sullivan County’s Communications Director, Dan Hust).
Josie Omar, a county resident and member of the Sullivan County Senior Legislative Action Committee, called the closure “unforgivable.”
“You cowards hide behind a gag order. Why did you hide behind a gag order? Because you wanted to keep the employees of the nursing home functioning, the workers there, the seniors there, the families out of the know,” said Omar. “You hide behind a gag order. This is unforgivable. I don’t know how you people sleep at night.”
Legislature Chair Rajsz said the entire process to close the facility is expected to take 90 days.
Image: Ken Walter, Sullivan County resident and Senior Legislative Action Committee member, pushed for answers surrounding the closure of the Care Center at Sunset Lake at the Aug. 20 county legislature meeting in Monticello, N.Y. (Photo Credit: Kimberly Izar)
How terrible to live there so many years and now they don’t care if they have a place to go or not. Disgusting shame on them and all the higher ups that only know you when they want your vote!!!!