The saga of Woodland Place, the debt-plagued former county nursing home in Coolspring Township, came one step closer to ending on Wednesday.

At an Orphans Court hearing, Mercer County Common Pleas President Judge Francis J. Fornelli and the state attorney general’s office OK’d the sale of the home to the nonprofit South Western Alpha Housing and Health Care Inc., clearing a necessary hurdle to the Dec. 31 closing date.

“It’s a good day for the residents, the county, taxpayers and South Western Alpha,” said Commissioner John Lechner.

The county’s conflict comes from being responsible for Woodland’s debts whenever the nursing home can’t make its bond payments. The county, which sold the home to Woodland in 1998, backed an $8.8 million renovation for the home in 2002.

But the days of the county paying Woodland’s bill may soon be over. South Western Alpha has been managing Woodland for about a year, and slowly paying off its outstanding vendor debt, mopping up the red ink bit by bit.

The nursing home group, which also owns Avalon Nursing Center in New Castle, offered to manage Woodland in exchange for a shot at ownership.

Wednesday’s hearing saw testimony from both the current Woodland chairman Timothy Jablon, and South Western Alpha’s president and chief, John Hadgkiss.

They affirmed that there’s no relationship between Woodland and South Western Alpha, that nobody will be getting any perks or payments from the arrangement, and that Woodland and Avalon aren’t in the same competitive market.

South Western will get insurance to cover any lawsuits that could arise after their purchase, and they plan to continue to operate the nursing home and to honor a contract they’ve negotiated with the home’s union. They will also continue to rent some parts of the facility out to Penn Northwest Development Corp.

Woodland attorney Robert Lackey questioned both Jablon and Hadgkiss, and the state attorney general’s senior deputy, Regis Schnippert, and Fornelli also posed various questions to make sure all the details of the sale were on the up and up.

South Western is getting loans guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to buy the property, borrowing to the tune of $5.5 million.

While the sale will get the county out from under the thumb of Woodland’s current bond issue, it will still come with a pricetag for taxpayers. Last years’ 2-mill tax hike was aimed at raising about $2 million needed for the sale of the home. That money, along with proceeds from the 1998 sale and the sale to South Western, will be used to bury the bond issue.

Fornelli took time to express gratitude to the existing Woodland Place board, who volunteered their time over the years to try and get the ailing nursing home back on track.