LCCHC Board votes on surplus property recommendation

CHELAN – The Lake Chelan Community Hospital and Clinics Board voted on the Facilities Steering Committee recommendation to sell the current hospital property at their Tuesday, Oct. 23 meeting.

LCCHS Board Chair Mary Signorelli presented a drafted resolution which addressed how to deal with surplus property, along with the committee’s recommendation. It’s believed by the District that is in the best interest to sell the property.

However, Board Member Mary Murphy wasn’t quite convinced on moving forward with the resolution without having a letter from USDA. The USDA letter would approve the loan for the new hospital building project.

The signed USDA letter should’ve been delivered on Monday Oct. 22. Yet, for one reason or another the letter wasn’t delivered. It would then arrive in the next upcoming days according to LCCHS Interim CEO Steve Patonai.

“We still don’t have proof of evidence of the ability to build the new facility until we have that in hand,” said Murphy.

Ultimately  the resolution would only serve as a way for the Board to show their interest in selling the property.  With that being said, Board Member Jordana Laporte clarified “we are just agreeing to surplus it, we are not picking a price.”

Signorelli explained that at the moment there’s interest from different parties to acquire the property. She also mentioned that the resolution was being presented that day because it was anticipated that the USDA letter would already be in hand.

If the Board tabled the resolution for the next meeting which is at the end of November, by then it would be harder to put it in the market. Signorelli also stated that they don’t want the parties to lose interest in the property by having them wait for too long.

After further discussion the Board voted on the resolution and it was agreed that it would be dated once the USDA funding letter was received. The board has received the letter. See separate story.

CEO Recruitment Update:

LCCHC Board Chair Mary Signorelli, informed that four candidates were interviewed via video last week. All candidates were of “fine quality” and the Board was very impressed with them all. The candidates have been invited into town and will visit the Lake Chelan Community Hospital to continue with the interviewing process.

The first candidate was interviewed on Sunday, Oct. 28 and Monday Oct. 29. The second candidate will arrive Nov. 2 and 3, the following two days will be reserved for the third candidate and lastly on Nov. 6 and 7 the last candidate will be interviewed.