Schuylkill County sold its nursing home, Rest Haven, two years ago, but the bills from the Harrisburg law firm that handled the sale are still rolling in.

At a public meeting Wednesday, commissioners approved paying $3,000 to Eckert Seamans LLC for work involving the sale.

That brings the total amount paid to the firm to $294,923.14.

County Finance Director Paul E. Buber said the county paid Eckert Seamans a total of $282,173.49 to assist with the Rest Haven sale for the combined periods of 2014 and 2015.

In 2016, the county paid the firm another $6,539.65, and $3,210 was paid last year to cover some pending matters.

“There were some Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement issues that arose on who was owed what, and there were some bed tax issues,” said County Administrator Gary R. Bender.

“The electrical service changed hands, which caused some penalties, and the same for natural gas service to the facility,” he said.

The nursing home, now called Rosewood, “established an escrow account for improvements to be made as part of the sale and there were questions on the release of those funds,” Bender said.

“Finally, there were a few right to know requests regarding the sale and proposals. In each instance, because Eckert Seamans was the attorney for the county, we utilized their services to settle questions that arose rather than dealing directly with Rosewood,” he said.

Commissioners hired the law firm in August 2014 for $250,000 to handle the sale.

The county sold the financially struggling Rest Haven in September 2015 to Investment 360 of Lakewood, New Jersey, for $10.9 million.

A month later, commissioners agreed to increase the contract cap by $15,000.

In other matters Wednesday, commissioners appointed three people to terms on the county Transportation Authority Board.

They are Robert Carl of Orwigsburg and Terry Raffety of Minersville, both to five-year terms.

Commissioners also appointed Thomas Yashinsky of Schuylkill Haven to fill the unexpired term of Karl Kramer on the board. Yashinsky’s term will run from Jan. 24 through Jan. 4, 2022.

There will be no commissioners’ meeting held next week. The next meeting will be at 10 a.m. Feb. 7.