Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital decision placed on hold

By Jeremiah Tucker, Sauk Prairie Eagle

A provision sought by Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital officials that would accelerate their planning for a new medical campus was passed over by three local governments, though the amendment likely will be reconsidered in the near future.

The villages of Prairie du Sac and Sauk City and the town of Prairie du Sac boards voted to approve an intergovernmental boundary agreement that establishes a map for growth in each of the villages without including the hospital’s request.

Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital officials spoke at all three municipal board meetings Nov. 10 arguing for a change in the boundary agreement that would allow two 40-acre parcels where the hospital hopes to build southeast of the corner of highways 12 and PF to be annexed sooner than 2014.

A vote to approve the boundary agreement without the provision may not be “anti-hospital,” said hospital board of directors member John “Tony” DeGiovianni, but he told the Prairie du Sac Village Board members minutes before they passed it that they shouldn’t be surprised if the hospital’s 450 employees interpret it that way.

“We’d all think it was very unfriendly if you don’t want us to plan for our future,” DeGiovianni said.

Sauk Prairie Memorial Hospital CEO Larry Schroeder said the hospital will continue to move forward with planning its new medical campus. Last month the hospital hired the Wisconsin-based architectural and design firm Kahler Slater to do preliminary planning and site analysis for the new hospital.

The firm is also supposed to provide a re-use plan for the hospital’s existing building.

“We’ll be proceeding down the same road that we would’ve been proceeding down before the boundary agreement was in place,” Schroeder said.

Schroeder said the hospital can ask that the boundary agreement be amended later – a point Prairie du Sac Village Administrator Alan Wildman made during the Nov. 10 meeting.

“Our plan will be when we get to the right point we’ll be going back and doing that again,” Schroeder said.

Several Sauk City Village Board members said they wanted an opportunity to take a closer look at the hospital’s plans, but didn’t want to slow down the Sauk Prairie Comprehensive Plan process.

Board member Michael Rogers said if Sauk City were to approve the amendment to the boundary agreement, which is part of the area’s comprehensive plan, and the other two municipalities failed to do so, the entire agreement would go back to a joint committee, which could further slow the process.

Instead, he suggested approving the agreement without the amendment and asked the board consider revisiting the issue after the agreement was in place.

“We’ve got to approve something in order to be able to work with it,” Rogers said.

All of the board’s members indicated a willingness to consider the hospital’s desire to move to a new location, though several said they believed Sauk City should take a back seat to decisions made in the town and village of Prairie du Sac because that is where the land being discussed is located. The board unanimously approved the agreement without the amendment.

At the Prairie du Sac meeting, trustee Andrew Strathman made a motion to include the hospital’s proposed changes, but no one seconded it.

“The ability for this hospital to thrive is the ability for this community to thrive,” Strathman said.

Prairie du Sac Trustee Ray Bolton said it was too late for the hospital to ask for a change in the “12th hour.” Prairie du Sac Trustee Eldor Fruehling said it was premature to change the agreement without input from the other municipalities.

During the town of Prairie du Sac’s meeting, town clerk Dick Nolden said trustee Tom Murphy also suggested amending the boundary agreement as the hospital requested, but the board never voted on his proposal. 

Strathman and Murphy were the only board members to vote against the boundary agreement in the village and town of Prairie du Sac.

Nolden said the town board approved the boundary agreement with the understanding that it would work with the hospital going forward.

Schroeder said the point he made at the Prairie du Sac meeting is that amending the boundary agreement wouldn’t preclude the villages from providing input to the hospital’s planning of a new hospital.

“They still had plenty of opportunities to review what we wanted to do, so we will take them at their word and come back and do that again,” Schroeder said.