DARLINGTON – The subcommittee created by the Hospital Committee to look into purchasing land in the Village of Argyle in order to build a two-provider clinic was approved to look at pricing for land and keep proceeding at their meeting on Jan. 24.
Bev Anderson, Bob Boyle and Homer Evenstad, as part of the subcommittee, went and met with a few members of the Village of Argyle board: Jim Larson, Tom Moore, David Phillipson and Sandra Flannery. Anderson told the committee that the village board was very receptive and worked well with the subcommittee on wanting the clinic to stay in Argyle.
The group first visited the Woodford State Bank downstairs portion of the building. Anderson stated that there were too many halls and the whole area would need reconstruction and plumbing would need to be redone. It was a great building but not right for the clinic.
They next visited the previous Belle’s Grocery Store on Main Street in Argyle. Again, Anderson said they would have to start from scratch. She mentioned it was a beautiful grocery store but not a place for the clinic.
In the end they went back to the current lot and looked at the adjacent lot, owned by Philip Steiner, on the corner of State Street and Mill Street.
“The clerk, Sandra Flannery, stated that she thought this the best location, so the people would know where it is would be right where it currently is,” Anderson added.
She said that Steiner called and was willing to have the lot surveyed if the committee was really interested. Steiner was not sure at what amount he would sell it. The entire lot, including the house that is also on the lot, is valued at $33,000.
“If you bought that lot, is there room to build another building there while still keeping the other one open?” Jack Sauer asked.
Anderson and Evenstad both agreed that there was enough room.
Kathy Kuepers, MHLC COO, stated that if they were considering making the clinic a two-provider clinic, they would also be bringing in four to five staff members and wondered if that would take up too much parking in the area. Anderson said that the area was residential and didn’t believe that parking was an issue.
“If we were able to expand the property by buying another lot, the new facility could be constructed while the old facility could remain in service. I think that is very important. If you close that clinic down for so many months, and you would lose it all,” Larry Ludlum stated.
“We have to keep our services within the county. The minute that we quit our services then it effects the whole economy,” Anderson added.
A motion was made by Jack Wiegel and seconded by Jack Sauer to allow the subcommittee to find out lot lines, pricing and keep proceeding with the intent to purchase land in the Village of Argyle. The motion passed unanimously.
Zip Code Report
At the last Hospital Committee meeting, Bob Boyle suggested Molly Wiegel create a report of the zip codes that patients are coming from to use the services at the hospital, from the months of November and December 2017. The results were quite interesting. Eighty-nine percent of the patients were from Wisconsin and 11 percent from Illinois. It was noted that ten percent and seven percent were from Argyle and Monroe, respectively. Julie Chikowski, MHLC CEO, stated that is almost 1/5 of all the patients.
“Well that certainly shows the need to have a good size clinic down there,” Sauer stated referring to the Argyle Clinic.
One town that stuck out was La Moille, Ill., where three percent of the patients were from. La Moille is about 113-miles away or a 2-1/2 hour drive.
Other Business
Kuepers wanted to clear up some confusion due to the dialysis build out. The hospital has hired an urologist not a nephrologist and they are not restarting dialysis at the hospital. The dialysis build out is just repurposing the old dialysis space into more specialty clinic space.
The Hospital committee also approved:
-the IT Security Training Platform with a cost of $5,103 for three years.
-Microsoft Licensing, allowing personal information to be sent via email securely for $2,857/year
-a new treadmill for RT/PT for $5,600.