Oconomowoc plans Aurora strategy meeting

Waukesha Freeman, May 27, 2006

By ERIK BROOKS and LISA REED
Freeman Staff

OCONOMOWOC The mayor and city council plan to meet in closed session Thursday to discuss their next steps following a series of key rulings against the city in Aurora Health Cares lawsuit over a failed Pabst Farms hospital project.

Oconomowoc Mayor Maury Sullivan confirmed the meeting plans late Friday afternoon, and said one potential course of action would be to appeal the ruling that deemed the citys 2001 rezoning of the proposed 43.5 acre site an action that killed Auroras initial plans to build the hospital illegal and invalid.

That ruling by Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge James R. Kieffer on Thursday cleared the way for Aurora to re-petition the city hours later with plans to build a 360,000-square-foot, 88-bed hospital and 100,000-square-foot medical office building northeast of Interstate 94 and Highway 67.

The project comes with an estimated price tag of $166 million.

Aurora and city staff members will meet to discuss the hospital systems application June 14, Sullivan said. Meanwhile, Thursdays closed meeting with city attorneys will deal only with the judges ruling not Auroras specific plans, Sullivan said.

Yet he admitted that the two issues are in some ways linked, and a decision to appeal Kieffers decision on the city councils 5-year-old rezoning action could throw into question Auroras plans to build at the Pabst Farms site.

Also, Sullivan said Oconomowoc officials could decide to reattempt an effort to rezone the property from suburban commercial, which would allow for the hospital to be built, back to suburban industrial, which would again hinder Auroras building plans.

It will all depend on what course of action they take, he said, referring to the city council.

For now, however, Sullivan said it is business as usual on the Aurora submittal.

It is going to be treated just like any other project proposal that any developer submits or any owner submits, he said. It is judged on its merits.

Word of the closed meeting came as a group of area business owners said Friday it will approach city officials and reiterate its position that a second hospital in Oconomowoc is unneeded. Concerned Businesses for Responsible Health Care gave the same message to the Waukesha County Board in 2005 before county supervisors reversed a rezoning decision by the town of Summit that would have allowed Aurora to build a new Pabst Farms hospital in the town.

We think the court decision is a setback, and we will approach community leaders of Oconomowoc to help them understand that business leaders will rally in support of their efforts to oppose duplicate services, said Bill Nantell, co-chairman of CBRHC, which represents 120 businesses in Waukesha County.

Nantell said nothing has changed in the past year, and there is no need for a new hospital.

Our group feels that the last 30 days have not been good in regards to health care costs, Nantell said, also citing Aurora rival ProHealth Cares recently announced $36.7 million expansion and renovation plans for Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital.

Nantell called Auroras plans substantial.

The real losers are the business owners and ratepayers who will pay for another hospital if it must be approved, Nantell said.

Aurora officials have pushed for the new hospital arguing that health care competition will work to improve the quality of health care and bring costs down.

A spokesman could not be reached Friday evening for comment on the closed meeting.

In an interview Thursday, Sue Ela, vice president of the Kettle Moraine Region for Aurora, said she hopes Kieffers ruling gives the Oconomowoc project a fresh start.

Our primary goal is getting a hospital built, she said. We are ready to go in a different way than we were in 2001. We plan on meeting all of the citys requirements.