Many Butler County residents haven't taken a vacation from their interest in whether the county will sell Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

That is an option the county commissioners are considering as a result of projections that the home could incur a loss approaching $1 million this year, as well as significant losses beyond 2009.

But last week's meeting of the Sunnyview board of directors, which comprises the commissioners, provided new evidence that county officials remain on the right course in trying to determine the home's eventual fate.

Discussion at the meeting provided proof that officials are looking much deeper into the facility's financial numbers and what they really mean than just accepting so-called bottom-line numbers and what they "seem" to indicate.

The current process is appropriate even though the county is awaiting the findings of Carbis Walker, a Pittsburgh accounting firm that was hired last month to make a thorough analysis of the nursing facility.

At last week's Sunnyview meeting, there was speculation that the facility's financial numbers might not be as bleak as the county's 2009 budget might indicate. The commissioners made provisions for a $1 million Sunnyview deficit when they crafted this year's county spending package.

There were numbers talked about last week, but there wasn't one specific projection in which everyone was comfortable embracing.

Carbis Walker presumably will provide a clearer picture of the facility's fiscal health, with the study's data suggesting a course of action that the county should strongly consider.

Weighing into the Sunnyview picture is the impact that a new contract with the home's union employees will have on the facility's financial bottom line. One point of discussion last week was that Sunnyview employees' fringe benefits, which include health care, add up to 68 percent of the workers' wages.

That number is much higher than what most other counties are paying in fringe benefits for their county nursing home workers.

There can be no vacation regarding Sunnyview. It won't be long until work on the county's 2010 budget will get into high gear.

Whatever the eventual Sunnyview decision, it's doubtful anyone will have grounds for accusing county officials of failing to give enough attention to the facility and its issues.