County offering no fight to hospital agreement

Vrakas, Dwyer say matter now settled

Waukesha Freeman, August 16, 2006

By JUSTIN KERN
Freeman Staff

WAUKESHA County Executive Dan Vrakas said he does not expect the county to fight an agreement approved Tuesday allowing Oconomowoc to bypass its opposition to the use of town of Summit land for a new hospital.

The agreement between Oconomowoc, the town of Summit, Aurora Health Care and Pabst Farms developers involves the city use of extraterritorial zoning where a city can rezone nearby town lands on Summit land for the hospital. That overrides a 22-11 vote by the Waukesha County board last year against changes to zoning and the county master plan required by the 55-acre hospital on Interstate 94 in the town.

We need to take a look at the agreement, but with the extraterritorial zoning, that pretty much is the final word in state law, Vrakas said.

Concerns about a new hospital bringing a spike to health care costs in the area were a focal point of opposition by some county officials, though Vrakas said an agreement for extraterritorial zoning takes the county board out of the hospital decision.

My concern has always been, and will continue to be, that we make sure we have low-cost, highquality health care in Waukesha County. We will see how that unfolds in the coming years, Vrakas said.

Vrakas and county board members said they would soon discuss the matter with legal representatives to see the status of lawsuits by Aurora and the town of Summit that followed a previous county decision against the rezoning and changes to the county master plan. According to the agreement, those lawsuits would be dismissed.

Supervisor Patricia Haukohl voted against allowing the rezoning and master plan changes last year because of worries about high health care costs from competing hospitals, especially in the western portion of the county, she said. While she said she absolutely still thinks the Summit hospital will increase health care expenses for area residents, she said the decision Tuesday means the matter is now between Oconomowoc and the town of Summit.

As far as Im concerned, thats up to them to decide. Now, the county board is out of that decision, Haukohl said.

When supervisors negated the Summit hospital zoning, County Board Chairman James Dwyer disapproved but said it was a decision I had to live with. The deal struck by the municipalities Tuesday which includes an exchange of land and the construction of a new fire department in Oconomowoc brings the hospital decision back to the appropriate level of government, Dwyer said.

When I go to Madison and talk about how the state treats county government, I tell them to let us do what we do best at the county level, so I found it disingenuous to tell (the town of Summit) what to do, he said.