Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Fairview resident Kenny James visits with Kristy McMahan, acting administrator of the Fairview Home for Adults in Pulaski County Wednesday. Community Services of the New River Valley has stepped in to manage the facility temporarily.

DUBLIN -- Fairview Home seems always to have lived on the edge.

The 80-year-old assisted living center has struggled with money problems, an embezzlement, the loss of several administrators and a constant effort to meet state licensing requirements.

Its most recent struggle started Jan. 19 with the resignation of Reba Broyles as administrator. She stepped down following complaints from a delegation at a home board of directors meeting about conditions at the aging facility.

The home is licensed for up to 66 residents, and currently has 60. Some have been there for decades.

Linda Duffey is uncertain just how long she has lived there. But she and her sister, Nancy, are longtime residents who think of it as their home. So does Kenny James, whose room is filled with mementos of Pulaski County High School Cougar sports activities.

Many of the residents are severely disabled, either mentally or physically.

Some of those disabilities would pose difficulties for regular nursing homes. If Fairview Home ever had to close, it could be hard to place its 60 residents elsewhere in the community. They might have to be sent to facilities far away from the New River Valley area with which they are familiar.

Such placements would have to be on a case-by-case basis, said Jennifer Bullock, administrator at the Pulaski Health Care Center.

"It completely depends on the patient. We have to be able to meet their needs," Bullock said.

Board members, faced with the abrupt loss of an administrator, went to New River Valley Community Services for help. They got it.

"It is our mission to support people with mental retardation," said Lucy McCandlish, adult and family services director with community services.

Community services, established in 1969, is a nonprofit provider of behavioral health services to children, adults and families through various programs. It is funded by Floyd, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski counties and Radford; the Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services; the federal government; a number of federal, state and private grants; and community contributions.

Fairview is supported by most of the same localities: Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski counties and Radford. Much of the home's annual budget of about $900,000 comes from $1,000 per resident monthly state payments.

The Fairview Home board is paying community services what had been the administrator's salary.

"The situation, when it came to us, was obviously very dire," said Mike Wade, community relations specialist with community services. "We agreed to throw a lot of our resources behind this."

One of those resources is Kristy McMahon, a supervisor for a community services group home in Pearisburg. McMahon is serving as administrator until the board can hire a permanent one.

She grew up and still lives in Dublin. When she was small, she and other girls used to visit with residents of Fairview Home.

How long community services will manage the home is up in the air. It might be until July, when certain licensing requirements must be met, or it could be longer.

Wade said a team effort already is showing results.

A lack of carbon dioxide detectors was one of the shortcomings cited by the state. Those have now been acquired and installed.

Another violation was the lack of heat in some of the rooms. Two of the home's 10 heating units, all 15 years old, have been replaced and the others cleaned.

Burned-out light bulbs have been replaced and defective fixtures repaired. That alone brightens up the place, McMahon said.

"Everybody's safe and everybody's being taken care of," McCandlish said. "It's still a work in progress."

The four localities that support the home were among the original owners of what was a poor farm maintained for people unable to support themselves. Other localities also had ownership in the original home, but have relinquished it. Craig County is still among the owners but is inactive.

Over the years, and most recently in 2003, Fairview Home sold off acreage to help support itself. It now has just 5 acres, making land sales no longer an option.

In 2000, Nancy Lane resigned after four months as administrator over what she called a board failure to address problems for which the state had cited the home, including inadequate medication record-keeping. The home had been fined $500 and placed on a provisional license.

Rhonda Musselman Woods, who succeeded Lane as administrator, resigned in 2001 and at a trial in 2002, pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $13,000 from Fairview.

Broyles succeeded Musselman Woods and continued until last month.

Pulaski County Administrator Peter Huber, chairman of the Fairview Home board, said board members hope to fix problems, but more generally to raise the level of services provided by the home.

He said the home has always depended on community support. In recent weeks, Christ Lutheran Church in Radford donated $150. The New River Valley Regional Jail at Dublin has provided inmate labor through the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office for cleaning. Someone gave $100.

"But there is certainly an ongoing need for community support," Huber said. "It is very much appreciated, and it is very much needed."

McMahon said Fairview Home is looking for donations of money and labor, a vacuum cleaner, a criss-cross paper shredder, television sets, wooden outdoor seats, office furniture, crafts activities and games, and movies on videotape or DVD. To reach the home, call 674-5260.