Winchester House, you're bringing me down

Winchester House, which hasn't paid its own way in decades, seems like a leftover from the county's agricultural days when old folks went from the farm to the nursing home as they got older. Not only that, but isn't it another reminder of the "nanny state" that government wants to provide, when private industry, thank you, is doing the same thing, and sometimes better.

Not that every Lake County nursing home is on par with Winchester House, but people are living longer and healthier lives, unlike when the county's skilled nursing facility was at its peak in the 1960s and '70s. For $31 million, the new Winchester better be a real nice place for The Hound to spend his waning days itching and scratching.

The Hound isn't sure why county officials are so tied to Winchester House, which at one time township supervisors used as a political plum by placing constituents' relatives into the Libertyville facility. But every adminstration has supported spending additional money on keeping it alive. Perhaps they harken back to the "good old days" when Lake County was considerably more rural.

Whatever, the die has been cast. Tearing down the old Winchester House and building a new one is next on the venerable facility's agenda. The Hound has an inkling if the question was put to a vote, voters would have put the house in its grave.