Lake Shore hospital's fate on life support

Plans to keep the main hospital building around on Lake Shore's campus may be on life support. The Lake Shore Hospital Authority is still holding out hope for Meridian Behavioral Healthcare to move into the building after the two sides sort out a contract. However, LSHA Chairman Brandon Biel said Monday if that doesn't come to fruition soon, it may be time for drastic measures.

"I'm not in favor of this board putting any more money into that building, whether it be maintaining the building or anything of that nature," Biel said. "Once we have an agreement, whatever that may be, they need to be ready to take it over."

The discussion over the main hospital building steered into the financial side of things when the board started talking about upcoming insurance updates. With property and liability insurance rates going up in Florida in recent months, the LSHA is on the hook for a large increase from the current $191, 454 premium on the building. The renewal on the insurance would push that figure up to $291, 321 per year.

LSHA Executive Director Dale Williams said when that number is put into context, it comes out to about a third of the monthly operating costs for the now-vacant hospital.

"That is the single largest line item in the number of keeping it up," Williams said. "That is very significant. So the question then turns into what can we potentially do?" Williams said the insurance company the authority goes through has placed a $46 million value on the building. While Williams disagreed with that estimate, he said there wasn't much the board could do about it.

"Believe you me, it is difficult to argue with the insurance company that you're wanting to devalue the building based on their numbers, their modeling, their algorithm, whatever it is they use," Williams said. "To give you a comparison, on the tax roll, (Columbia County Property Appraiser) Jeff (Hampton) has us basically at $9.5 million I cannot see a $40 million value being necessary on that property."

Williams said he'd like to challenge the insurance company on the value of the building. However, trustee hearing

protection

Stephen Douglas said that may be impossible given the short timeframe.

"I can tell you that a commercial appraiser's not going to get back to you in 60 days," Douglas said. "It's tough."

While a final proposal from Meridian is expected at the board's Sept. 11 meeting, Biel said if there isn't significant progress by then, drastic measures may need to be taken.

"If we don't reach an agreement with Meridian pretty soon, I'm going to make a motion that we demolish the building and tear it down anyways," Biel said. "I can't see spending almost $300, 000 insuring a NOTICE OF PUBLIC COLLECTION OF

Notice is hereby given that

to consider re-imposing

services within the City

building that I have a desire to tear to the ground."

The insurance and liability policies on the hospital building run from Oct. 1 until Sept. 30, giving the board until the end of next month to decide how to handle it.

CONTRACT TALKS NEARING END LSHA attorney Todd Kennon said Monday that the authority and Emergency Medical Physicians at Lake Shore (EM PALS) are closing in on a lease agreement for the two-story women's center on the Lake Shore campus.

A draft contract between the two sides was part of HEARING TO RE-IMPOSE FIRE PROTECTION SPECIAL OF LAKE CITY, FLORIDA

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fire protection special

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Monday's agenda. The contract calls for a two-year lease on the building with the option for a third year should both parties agree to it. Financial terms are still being ironed out by Kennon, who said the meeting to discuss those terms is set for next week.

"The ground lease should be pretty easy," Kennon said. "Hopefully by September, we'll have everybody's temperature gauged and be ready to finalize that one way or the other."

Likewise, Kennon said he believes contract talks with Meridian should materialize into something the board can see and debate AND PROVIDE FOR ASSESSMENTS

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by next month as well.

Meridian's lawyers have asked if the company can purchase the hospital building outright, a sentiment that Treasurer Lori Chancy said she's not in favor of. Kennon said Meridian's lawyers are aware that the authority would like to see two scenarios presented at its next meeting: one with a purchase agreement, and one with a lease agreement. "That's the position they've taken, and so that's what we'll be hopefully finalizing next week or in 10 days and be able to get something on paper," Kennon said. "Might be ready for a full consideration on a purchase."