Aging county home may become bed and breakfast

SCOTCH GROVE - The century-old county home may need some work, but Edinburgh Manor, Jones County's former residential-care facility, now has buyer.

In March, the county accepted a bid of $52,050 from Q. Farm Land Trust, of Fairfax, which has proposed to transform the two-story, 12,000-square-foot brick building into a bed and breakfast, Jones County Auditor Janine Sulzner said.

But that conversion could prove difficult, as parts of the structure have fallen into disrepair.

“It's such a unique piece of property. It's hard to know what to do with the place,” said Phil Parsons, Jones County Attorney. “There's tons of work that needs to be done with it.”

Built in about 1911, Edinburgh Manor, which sits about 11 miles northeast of Anamosa, was rendered surplus when Community Care, the Dewitt-based non-profit that provides residential mental health services under contract to Eastern Iowa counties, moved its 36 residents with chronic mental illness to its new Fairview Care Center in Anamosa.

Community Care spent about $1 million to renovate the former Jones Regional Medical Center after the hospital moved to a new facility on Anamosa's eastern edge in October 2009.

In January, William Bonnes, president and CEO of Community Care Inc., told The Gazette the building was no longer fit to serve mental health patients.

“It was dangerous,” he said. “Even though we passed fire inspection, the structure was not conducive to having disabled people live there.”

The bid from Q. Farm Land Trust, whose trustee is Jo Anne Beer, of Fairfax, was one of a handful of offers the county received after it began advertising the building in February, Sulzner said.

The county is awaiting a land survey before it closes the deal, she said.

By James Malewitz, Sourcemedia Group