PONTIAC - The Livingston County Board will vote today on the plan to transfer ownership of Livingston Manor nursing home to Flanagan-based Good Samaritan Home.

The Livingston County nursing home committee met Wednesday afternoon and recommended the series of agreements to the full board, which must approve the deal by a two-thirds vote.

"This is just a recommendation … and then the full board has to vote on it," committee member Carl Borngasser said.

The deal involves a series of agreements involving a nursing home management contract, a commercial lease for the home, ownership transfer terms and an economic development grant from the county, County Board attorney Tom Blakeman said.

The board also must approve terminating the current nursing home management agreement with Management Performance Associates, the firm that now runs the county-owned home.

The County Board voted last month to enter into negotiations with Good Samaritan.

Under the terms of the deal, Good Samaritan would manage the home for the county from Dec. 1 to June 30, 2009. Then it will lease the home from the county from July 1, 2009, through March 31, 2011.

At that time, Good Samaritan is expected to open a new 122-bed facility in which all beds will be certified for both Medicare and Medicaid patients.

Good Samaritan says building the new home will cost about $14 million. The county may pay Good Samaritan up to $4.5 million as part of the deal.

The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board has the final say on how many beds the new home will have, but Good Samaritan Executive Director Rick Curtis said he intends to build the facility with 122 beds.

The county will have final say on the location of the facility, which probably will be built near the intersection of Interstate 55 and Illinois 116 - close to OSF St. James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center on the city's west side.

Livingston Manor, a 122-bed facility built in the 1960s, is south of Pontiac on Old U.S. 66.