Iola has several items to consider if Allen County Hospital is built outside of town and the land is annexed by the city.
Much of Monday’s discussion between Iola City Council members and ACH trustees revolved around the potential of the city being able to sell utilities for land currently serviced by other providers, as well as costs associated with extending utilities to land north of the city.
Providing electricity and sewer service to land north of Oregon Road — a site currently under consideration by hospital trustees — appears to have fewer hurdles than providing water and natural gas, the council was told.
Iola would be reimbursed by the hospital the costs of extending an 8-inch sewer line north from Strickler Dairy to Oregon, Trustee Tom Miller said, estimated at about $280,000.
The city, meanwhile, would bear the costs of extending electricity, much as Iola has done in the past for other large-scale construction projects, such as the Russell Stover Candies plant.
Miller noted that Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative, which currently provides electricity to areas north of Oregon Road, “would not stand in the way” of the city’s desires to provide electricity to the medical facility, although it wasn’t known if the city would have to compensate Heartland for the electricity rights.
Extending water and natural gas services may not be as feasible.
The city would be unable to supply natural gas beyond Oregon without a significant investment, Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock explained, because more than extending gas lines would be needed.
“We wouldn’t have the necessary gas pressure,” Schinstock said.
And the Rural Water District No. 5 owns water rights to areas north of Oregon, Miller said, and had indicated a desire to retain those rights. The city would likely have to compensate the water district in order to provide water service to the hospital site, if it’s built there.
One factor to consider regarding water, ACH Trustee Jay Kretzmeier said, is that the hospital would not be considered a large-scale consumer.
“It may not be advantageous to you” to extend water service past Oregon, Kretzmeier told the council.
Another item to consider is whether the city annexes Oregon Road in addition to the land north of it, Schinstock said.
That’s because snow removal could become an issue in wintry weather. As an east-west thoroughfare on relatively open ground, Oregon is susceptible to drifting snow.
County commissioners said the county would continue to handle snow removal along Oregon while the city is providing sales tax revenues to the hospital project for the next nine years, Kretzmeier replied, even if the road is annexed by the city.
THE TRUSTEES were invited by Mayor Bill Shirley to Monday’s council meeting after trustees backed away from their original plans to build the hospital on East Street, because of the costs involved with the extensive site work.
However, “if there’s anything this board has learned, is you better be careful before you shut the door” on any proposed site, Kretzmeier said. Trustees won’t officially close the door on the East Street site until they are certain a better site is available elsewhere.
Likewise, it’s far from certain that the hospital will go north of Oregon, the trustees stressed, adding that Monday’s discussion dealt with many hypothetical assumptions.
Iola has agreed to provide a quarter-cent sales tax to assist with startup costs associated with the hospital project, one of the key proponents of the county’s separate quarter-cent sales tax levy approved by Allen County voters last November.
The trustees’ philosophy has been that if land outside Iola’s city limits is used for a hospital site, it would be on land close enough to be annexed by the city, Kretzmeier said.
City Attorney Chuck Apt, responding to questions from Shirley, said the annexation process could move relatively smoothly if other landowners agree to be annexed.
If land north of Oregon is used for the hospital, one such landowner is the First Christian Church.
Shirley said church officials were in favor of annexation.
In closing the discussion, Shirley lauded the hospital trustees for their work in finding a hospital site, which includes meeting for long hours on a weekly basis, often in front of feisty crowds.
“I support you 100 percent,” Shirley said.
Attending the meeting were trustees Miller, Kretzmeier, Harry Lee Jr. and Patti Boyd. Also in attendance was County Counselor Alan Weber.
