MUCH ACCOMPLISHED in one year was the message from Memorial Healthcare Development Corporation (MHDC) President Jim Slingerland during Memorial Healthcare’s annual Founders Day Luncheon Tuesday, June 2, in the Mitchell Auditorium on the Main Campus in Owosso.
“It was less than a year ago we had the groundbreaking off N. State Road for The Commons, a comprehensive health services development. Today the first residents are living in The Meadows assisted living center and the Shiawassee Community Health Center is about to be in operation (north of Godwin’s),” said Slingerland.
It was during the groundbreaking a year ago that discussions on MHDC constructing a new building on 10 acres north of Home Depot for the Shiawassee County Medical Care Facility (Pleasant View) were outlined. MHDC will only provide the building to SCMCF specifications for the new 100,000-square-foot structure. A 10-year lease-purchase agreement has been discussed, with SCHCF to ultimately own the building.
All operations and management of the SCMCF remain with the SCMCF board – with tentative plans to have the new building ready for use in the fall of 2016.
SCMCF will have an energy efficient building with the latest features, thus lower utility costs for operations. The county-owned facility on Norton Road in Corunna, built about 60 years ago to replace the County Poor Farm on Lyons Road near Richardson Road southwest of Corunna, is on land Corunna owned and was acquired by the county with the stipulation that it always be used for a county hospital. The future of the present building on Norton Road and adjacent buildings will rest with the Board of Commissioners and Corunna officials after the SCMCF moves.
SCMCF Administrator Rick Cordonnier and SCMCF Board Chair Londa Knauff have emphasized the annual voter-approved two-mill property tax levy will still be needed for SCMCF operations.
(Independent Photo/BILL CONSTINE)
