RHCB discusses medical clinics

by Bill Boender

The Sublette County Rural Health Care Board met Thursday, Dec. 30, in a special closed meeting to discuss construction of the Pinedale and Marbleton clinics. All members were present except Garry Eiden. Van Huffman was invited to advise the board regarding the construction options. The architects had been expected to attend, but arrived in town for an 8 a.m. meeting instead of the scheduled afternoon meeting.

Figures left by Davis Partnership showed that estimates for the Pinedale remodeling would be approximately $4,800,000 while constructing a completely new facility would cost $4,900,000. The new construction would leave the existing clinic available for use by other health care-related county operations and would have the advantage of not disturbing clinic operations.

Board members seemed to be in agreement that they should pursue new construction rather than continuing the remodel proposal, even though considerable funds have been spent on planning that project.

Huffman advised board members that before proceeding any further, they needed to do a complete survey of property boundaries, inquire about adjacent property availability, complete a soil analysis, check irrigation ditch status for possible interference and give all this information to the architects.

Keith Raney, Sublette County Sanitarian, addressed the board on behalf of his office and the Sublette County Public Health Nurse and urged them to pursue separate construction. Raney felt the proposed remodeling would complicate matters and did not address requirements of federal regulations regarding the Health Information Privacy Act.

The board briefly discussed the Marbleton Clinic situation and an offer from the Town of Marbleton to abandon a street adjacent to the current clinic to provide additional space for a new clinic at that location.

Board Member Bill Barney reported that other properties still need to be considered but they could not be discussed outside an executive session.

Using a common design for both clinics would result in substantial savings in design and construction costs, according to Huffman. Chairman Jerry Jensen noted that the physicians might not agree on a common design, but no one has approached them regarding the matter.

Huffman also advised the board that the majority of the construction could be done by local contractors, with the possible exception of roofing. Using local contractors would save considerable money by eliminating much of the mobilization costs required by utilizing out-of-state contractors.

The board will ask Rio Verde Engineering to complete a property survey as soon as possible and will then make a decision as to the best way to proceed.