Ah-Gwah-Ching to close March 14

BACKUS - Cass County finally has a closing date from the state for closing the state nursing care operations at Ah-Gwah-Ching: March 14.

The state now proposes to close on the sale of that property to Cass County 30 days later on April 15.

Tuesday, the county board voted to counter-propose that the sale closing date be set for 30 days after the state approves adequate funding to the county not only to demolish existing buildings and mitigate hazardous materials such as asbestos in them, but also to completely fund utility connections to the city of Walker.

Administrator Robert Yochum and Commissioner Jim Demgen appeared before legislative conference committees and met with state Department of Human Services and Department of Administration officials in St. Paul Feb. 13 in an effort to seek additional state funding.

So far, the Legislature has approved $4 million toward demolition and abatement. The Legislature also approved selling the property to the county for $1.

The county seeks another $400,000 for demolition and abatement, down from earlier estimates of an additional $977,000, because state officials think the cost estimates are high. The county also seeks $1.9 million more to connect to city water and sewer services.

In an effort to definitively pin down demolition and abatement costs, the board also voted Tuesday to seek bids for the demolition and abatement phase. Those bids will cover the cost of demolishing all existing structures on the site except the water tower, Yochum said.

Chief Financial Officer Larry Wolfe said the county hopes to receive bids by early April, before the 2008 Legislature's adjournment and allow time to adjust state funding to match actual bids.

Yochum said he is still negotiating with state officials to find a way the state can fund the $1.9 million the county expects to pay to connect Ah-Gwah-Ching property to city utility services.

In related action Tuesday, the board voted to ask Essentia (formerly known as Benedictine Health Systems) to provide a governance plan to the county by June 1 for the health care facility it proposes to build on a portion of the Ah-Gwah-Ching property. That is expected to include a critical access hospital.

That plan would outline for the county how Essentia would finance the hospital project, whether it would need and have support for a hospital taxing district and how it would provide medical staff for the facility.

Yochum said Tuesday, the county plans to proceed with purchasing Ah-Gwah-Ching from the state, regardless of whether the hospital project continues at this time. The county already is in the designing stages for the first of several phases to move county government offices and jail facilities to the site over the next 30 years.

The first phase would be a new building to house courtrooms, court offices and court administration. A holding area for inmates scheduled for court hearings also would be included.