Oneida County Board of Adjustment would hear appeal

STAR JOURNAL REPORT

Less than a month after being denied a conditional use permit by Oneida County’s Planning and Development Committee to build a hospital addition to its current clinic in Minocqua, the Marshfield Clinic announced Thursday that it will be appealing the committee’s decision.

The committee, which voted 3-2 June 14 to deny the Marshfield Clinic a permit for a 72,000-square-foot addition, based its decision on the application not meeting a standard for approval that states, “The establishment, maintenance or operation of the conditional use will not be detrimental to or endanger the public health, safety, morals, comfort or general welfare.”

Committee members Scott Holewinski, Jack Sorensen and Mike Timmons voted to deny the permit, while Dave Hintz and Billy Fried favored the permit’s issuance.

Marshfield Clinic regional medical director Bill Melms released a statement about the decision to appeal the committee’s vote.

“Although we are disappointed in the committee’s decision, we remain resolute in our intention to build a hospital in the Northwoods,” Melms said. “Marshfield Clinic is committed to providing our patients the state-of-the-art, integrated care that this facility will provide and the community deserves. We will complete the paperwork to initiate an appeal by the applicable deadline.”

The statement by Melms didn’t provide any additional information other to say “we will keep you informed as the process moves forward.”

The Marshfield Clinic applied in January for a conditional use permit to build a hospital that would have a surgery center, 12 in-patient beds, emergency room, imaging and lab. The proposed single-story addition, which has an estimated price tag from $30-35 million, would be built to the southwest of the existing clinic and designed for potential future expansion, vertically and horizontally, according to the permit application.

If approved, the project would place another hospital in the Minocqua-Woodruff area in close proximity to the existing Howard Young Medical Center that is part of Ministry Health Care and owned by Ascension. Representatives of HYMC have objected to the Marshfield Clinic’s proposal. HYMC also has its own multi-million-dollar renovation and construction project in the works.

Marshfield Clinic’s hospital addition proposal previously received the backing of both the Minocqua Plan Commission and the Town Board after both bodies heard from supporters and opponents before the permit application was forwarded to the county’s Planning and Development Committee, which held its own public hearing April 27 and also conducted an on-site inspection of the property May 10.