Schuylkill County commissioners on Wednesday agreed to extend a $9,711-a-month contract with HealthCare Services Group until the end of the year.

The company provides housekeeping management and supplies for Rest Haven, the county nursing home.All three commissioners, Chairman Frank J. Staudenmeier, George F. Halcovage Jr. and Gary J. Hess, voted in favor of the extension.All three also voted to extend until Feb. 28, 2015 a $53,619 annual management fee contract with Sodexo to provide meals for the facility.The nursing home, behind the Penn State campus in Schuylkill Haven, is becoming costly to run.In December, the county earmarked $500,000 from the general fund to pay the bills for the facility. Last month, it pumped in another half-million.The 142-bed nursing home has been running in the red, county finance director Paul Buber said outside the public meeting.The nursing home's revenues last year tallied about $10.2 million while its expenses came to about $11.4 million, leaving about a $1.2 million deficit.Buber attributed the shortfall to the fact that the number of residents had decreased, and didn't start to climb again until the last three months of 2013.Further, revenues and reimbursements Medicare and Medicaid payments were not increasing in proportion to expenditures, he said.Nursing homes are increasingly expensive to operate. In 2010, Carbon County sold its nursing home, Weatherwood, to Guardian Healthcare for $11.05 million.Carbon commissioners decided to sell the 200-bed facility after a financial analysis determined it was running on a $3 million deficit.Also on Wednesday, commissioners approved the sale of 7.96 acres along Route 61 in Pottsville to Blackstone Funding for $53,895 to offset delinquent taxes.Currently, $54,282 is owed in delinquent tax on the property, according to the Tax Claim Bureau.The property is currently owned by Seven Hills Hospitality. The site housed a restaurant that burned down in Nov. 2011.County Drug & Alcohol administrator Melissa Chewey asked commissioners to increase funding to Schuylkill Health Counseling by $24,000 to allow for the inclusion of a "Breaking the Cycle" program for inmates in the pre-release program. The increase raises the funding from $145,000 to $169,000.