Only about a dozen people attended the Jan. 16 informational meeting on a proposed 1 percent village sales tax in Wauneta, but Village Trustee Page Johnston didn’t want to say what the relatively low turnout meant.
    “I don’t want to speculate on that,” said Johnston, who conducted the meeting. “People all have their own reasons for doing what they do.”
    While attendees asked only two questions of the Board of Trustees, “I was comfortable with” the way the meeting went, he said. “I thought it operated smoothly.”
    The sales tax is aimed at stabilizing the financial situation of Wauneta Care and Therapy Center, which has been beset by lower-than-needed patient numbers and state cuts in Medicaid payments.
    Landen Lawless, one of those who attended the meeting, said later, “I think it was good information. I think I actually learned more than what I previously thought I did. I kind of wish there would’ve been more people there.”
    While he’s still mulling how he’ll vote  — and declined to say which way he’s leaning — Lawless said the meeting might have moved the needle for him.
    The meeting was aimed at detailing the nursing home’s past, present and future, and telling voters about the proposed sales tax, which is intended to stabilize its finances.

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