November 8, 2017 at 4:05 p.m.
Aspirus looks to expand Rhinelander clinic facility
City asked to vacate portion of Cherokee Lane for development
Aspirus looks to expand Rhinelander clinic facility
Last week, the Rhinelander City Council signed off on the site plan for a new Marshfield Clinic primary care clinic off North Shore Drive. On Monday, Aspirus officials were in front of the city's public works committee to ask the city to vacate a portion of Cherokee Lane for an addition to its present location on State Highway 17 on the city's northeast side.
Tom Radenz, vice president and senior consultant with REI Civil and Environmental Engineering and Surveying, and John Monks, vice president of operations for Aspirus Clinics, presented the proposal to the public works committee.
The expansion would require the city to vacate the portion of Cherokee Lane that runs between State Highway 17 and Chippewa Drive, with the clinic retaining the entrances from both.
Radenz said all of the surrounding landowners have signed a petition that Aspirus Clinics filed for the vacation.
"We're interested in taking that portion of the road out, leaving a small portion of Cherokee Lane on the east end for a connection to Highway 17," Radenz said. "With that, we would also like to then expand that Aspirus Clinic (that) exists up there and provide some additional services."
Included with the petition was a preliminary architectural rendering of how the expansion would look when completed.
"Any addition that we do to this Aspirus Clinic, obviously the roadway is right across the middle," Radenz said, adding that they recognize that there are underground utilities involved and his firm would work with those utilities to relocate them to a location agreeable to everyone involved.
Monks said the expansion will be done in two phases.
"The initial phase will be (to) build an additional medical office building attached to the current one which will allow us to bring in another specialist," Monks said. "Right now we have some that come in, but we just don't have the space."
He said those specialists could come from a wide variety of medical specialties that the Aspirus system either employs or has connections with but the present facility doesn't have the room to accommodate.
Monks said the present clinic is about 35,000 quare feet and the addition, which could be between 40-45,000 square feet, would more than double the size.
"That's not fully developed yet, it depends on what the specialists would require from us at that point," Monks said, adding that the plans currently do not include emergency room services but that is a possibility in the future.
After hearing from Radenz, the committee voted unanimously to vacate the requested portion of Cherokee Lane, pending legal review.
The next stop for the petition was the finance, wage and salary committee which approved it Tuesday evening.
The full City Council will discuss the request Nov. 13. But the process will not be complete as the council's intent must also be published three times as a legal notice.
Following the completion of the publication requirements, the council could take a final vote at its Dec. 11 meeting.
"The part of Cherokee Lane that is not being vacated is not being vacated at the request of the city in case, in the future, that Aspirus is not there, then the city has not lost that access to 17," Kost said. "This is what is known as a friendly vacation because all of the surrounding landowners had agreed."
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.