Cascade hospital seeks $19 million for new building

Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part two, with part one having appeared in Saturday’s Tribune.

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Cascade Medical Center will ask voters to approve up to $19 million in new property taxes to help fund the construction of a new hospital in the May 17 election.

The bond would be paid for over 30 years and cost $68 per $100,000 in assessed taxable property value per year. A two-thirds majority, or 66.7%, is required for passage.

The bond would fund about half of the expected cost of the new hospital.

The rest of the cost is expected to funded with $2 million the hospital has saved for the project as well as loans, grants and fundraising by the Cascade Medical Center Foundation, CEO Tom Reinhardt said.

“We hope not to need all $19 million and intend to actually use less,” Reinhardt said.

The district plans to build the new 32,000 square foot health-care facility on about eight acres of land about a half-mile north of Cascade on the west side of Idaho 55.

The new medical campus could be open as soon as 2025 if the bond issue is approved and other funding is found, Reinhardt said.

The taxing district which owns the hospital extends from Smiths Ferry on the south, to south of Donnelly on the north.

The populated area that includes McCall south to the City of Donnelly is not included in the district.

The current hospital on Lake Cascade Parkway is 50 years old, too small and outdated, hospital officials said when announcing the project last November.

The plans call for a surgery department, occupational and speech therapies, and expanded diagnostic imaging in addition to general modernization and expansion of existing services, Reinhardt said.

“Asking taxpayers to help fund the expansion is not a decision we take lightly,” hospital Trustee Jacque Zemlicka said

“Assuring access to current and added health services locally, in our hometown, is an outcome worthy of additional investment,” Zemlicka said.

Site development and construction is expected to cost about $27 million, but the total budgeted cost was set at $20% higher, at $34.2 million to account for inflation over the next three years, increasing construction and material costs and other contingencies, Reinhardt said.

The board approved a bond of “up to $19 million” as an “added cushion, just in case” costs rise even higher because of the uncertainty in supply lines and interest rates, Reinhardt said.

Bond funding is essential for the project, he said.

“If the bond issue fails, we will gather details about the vote, understand voter concerns, and discuss with the board what our next steps will be,” Reinhardt said.

The cost of the proposed bond would be in addition to the district’s current property taxes, which cost taxpayers about $69 per $100,000 in taxable assessed value per year.

Cascade Medical Center provides primary and walk-in medical care, as well as 24/7 emergency services, inpatient and skilled nursing, laboratory services, radiology services, physical therapy, and mental health services.

The family medicine clinic and physical therapy services are open six days per week.

The hospital has 59 employees and took in patient revenue of about $5.2 million in the last budget year that ended Sept. 30.

Last year the clinic hosted 5,557 patient visits. The hospital treated 1,646 patients, mostly in the emergency room, took 1,907 diagnostic images, ran 4,335 lab tests and provided 4,063 physical therapy sessions.

For more information, visit cmchd.org.

— Max Silverson, The Star-News, (McCall), Thursday

SiteOne Landscape Supply awarded supply bid for Fairground sprinkler system

POMEROY–The Garfield County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) awarded three bids, one for supplying material for the sprinkler system project, another for wood and waste removal, and a third for the rock crushing contract at their meeting on March 21.

A bid to supply materials only for the Garfield County Fairgrounds sprinkler system project from SiteOne Landscape Supply was approved for $28,294.19. Ironsides Custom Grinding’s bid to grind and remove the wood and yard waste at the Airport rock pit for $16,500 was approved. Konen Rock Crushing of Walla Walla’s bid for the 2022 rock crushing contract at the Schuster Pit was awarded. Their bid was for $342,177.77. A second bid submitted for the contract from Debco Construction was for $342,500, a difference of only $322.23.

Garfield County District Court Clerk Katie Magill informed the board that the Court received a security grant totaling $35,007. A portion of that amount, $26,857, will be allocated to updating the security cameras, $4,000 to the purchase of a new walk-through metal detector, and $4,150 to upgrades to the emergency system.

Washington State Representative Joe Schmick attended the meeting to hear the local issues. The BOCC discussed Governor Jay Inslee’s and Senator Patty Murray’s Lower Snake River Dams Benefit Replacement Study as well as needed repair to the Central Ferry Bridge.

— Naomi Scoggin, East Washingtonian, (Pomeroy), Thursday