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Dunn, Scambler can’t leave hospital district [UPDATED]
Published 9:47am Friday, February 3, 2012 Updated 1:17pm Friday, February 3, 2012The Pelican Valley Hospital District board of directors has rejected a proposal from Dunn and Scambler townships to leave the district. Only one board member supported the two townships which maintain that they pay a disproportionate share of the annual levy for the hospital district.
On the table was an offer by the two townships to continue to pay their share of current debt until the debt is retired. Dunn and Scambler Townships would have continued to pay their current share of the levy for up to three more years.
The other units of government in the Pelican Valley boundary include the cities of Pelican Rapids and Erhard and the townships of Lida, Pelican, Maplewood, Norwegian Grove and Erhards Grove.
Dunn and Scambler township officials maintained, in unsuccessful lobbying efforts, that the hospital district no longer serves the mission which dates back to when Pelican Rapids still had a hospital. The hospital in Pelican Rapids was organized in 1945 and built in 1951. It closed in 1993.
Memory care assisted living apartments are part of a three-year expansion plan by Pelican Valley Health Center in Pelican Rapids. Another part of the plan is upgrading of the present 40-bed nursing home. The projected cost is $7 million.
The two townships stated that the building project should be a private sector venture. The townships oppose bonding through the hospital district’s taxing authority.
Opponents of allowing the two townships to leave the organization, an opinion that won out in the recent board vote, said that the annual levy is very small and that Dunn and Scambler should remain in the organization.
Some homes valued up to $200,000 pay only about $12 a year to Pelican Valley.
The Hospital District’s proposed payable 2012 levy is $90,000, which is based on the value information, said County Auditor Wayne Stein. This generates a net tax capacity rate of .661 percent.
