| CEO to discuss growing need for nursing homes
On Friday, February 16 at 2 p.m., the public is invited to hear Richard Erb, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Maine Health Care Association (MHCA) speak at Bay Landing in Boothbay Harbor on the topic of the growing need for increased nursing home and assisted living care in the mid-coast area and the state. MHCA is the leading advocate for high quality long-term health care, housing, and supportive services that meet the needs of our state's senior and disabled citizens. MHCA membership includes over 250 nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Erb has held the position of Chief Executive Officer of the organization since 2001. Prior to that, Erb served as a town and city manager in three Maine communities and Ithaca, New York. He holds a bachelor's degree in public management from the University of Maine and a master's degree in community development from Cornell University.
VeriChip Launches IPO
Feb. 9, 2007Applied Digital launched the initial public offering (IPO) of its VeriChip division today with a lower-than-expected number of shares: 3.1 million at $6.50 per sharea sharp reduction from its intended 4.3 million shares and at the bottom end of its planned minimum price of $6.50 to $8.50 per share. Trading was moderate (2.2 millions shares traded hands) for the stock offering, which was underwritten by Merriman Curhan Ford, C.E. Unterberg, Towbin and Kaufman Bros.
The stock traded for as much as $6.99 and as little as $6.16, closing at $6.50. Thus, it fared much better than many other stocks trading on NASDAQ market, as reflected by the 1.16 percent drop in the NASDAQ Composite Index.
VeriChip's decision to pare down its IPO isn't necessarily bad news, says Frances Gaskins, president of IPOdesktop, a research firm located in Los Angeles.
If you care full-time for aging parents, you may be due a tax break
If you care for an aging parent, you're not alone. The National Alliance for Caregiving and the AARP estimate that 21 percent of all American adults care for other adults. Seven million Americans take care of someone 55 or older and live at least an hour away, a Pew Center study reports. And that number is growing - it is expected to double within 15 years.There is some tax relief for adult children who support their aging parents. You can reduce your 2006 taxable income by $3,300 if you claim a parent as your dependent.
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Livingston County must assist needy
There was an article in the Pontiac newspaper asking what it told the Livingston County Board when only one percent of the population showed up for the town meetings.I'd like to ask:When the original referendum was passed by such a large majority in favor of building a new nursing home, what did that tell the County Board?When there were literally thousands of names on the petitions in favor of a new home, what did that tell the County Board?Personally, I know some families who recently asked to get family members in other homes or assisted living. There was not room at the present time.These places are telling you what you want to hear, not what is happening in the real world.Food pantries are having considerably more people needing help. No one knows what might happen to them in the blink of an eye.The county home was constructed in the beginning to help the less fortunate.
Milling about in Williamstown
Now that the dust (and much contaminated soil) has settled on the former Photech property on Cole Avenue in Williamstown, the town appears to have attracted two very reasonable development proposals one from a North Berkshire firm that wants to build condominiums and one from a Kansas company that specializes in assisted living centers ( see story ). While the Transcript normally would lead the cheerleading for a local business, the Eby Group's proposal for an assisted living center with 46 residential units looks a lot more promising than Scarafoni Associates' proposal for 16 condominiums at least on first blush. First, there's the purchase price: Eby proposes to pay the town $179,500, while Scarafoni wants to put up $1. Then there's the contamination issue: Eby says it would deal with all contamination as part of its estimated $5 million construction cost.
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