Minocqua Plan Commission tables proposed Marshfield Clinic hospital

Commission requests additional information before Feb. 14 meeting

STAR JOURNAL REPORT

The Minocqua Plan Commission decided Tuesday not to decide and tabled action on a proposal from the Marshfield Clinic to build a 72,000-square-foot hospital addition to its current clinic in the town.

The Marshfield Clinic is seeking a conditional use permit for a hospital that would have a surgery center, in-patient beds, emergency room, imaging and lab. The proposed single-story addition would be built to the southwest of the existing clinic and designed for potential future expansion, vertically and horizontally, according to the permit application.

In tabling the permit application, which must receive the backing from the Plan Commission before being sent to the Minocqua Town Board for action and then forwarded to the Oneida County Planning and Development Committee for final approval, the Plan Commission is seeking additional information to be considered at its Feb. 14 meeting.

County land use specialist Kathy Ray said the additional information sought relates to the Marshfield Clinic’s expansion plans, an entrance to the facility from the west, a helipad as well as the county conducting a full review of the permit application.

The earliest the proposal could be forwarded to the Minocqua Town Board would be at its Feb. 21 meeting, after which the county Planning and Development Committee could consider it.

If approved, the project would place another hospital in the Minocqua area in close proximity to the existing Howard Young Medical Center that is part of Ministry Health Care.