Colfax approves $7,000 toward Marshfield Clinic remodel
By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — If Marshfield Clinic decides to open in Colfax at the location on High Street, the Colfax Village Board is prepared to donate $7,000 toward remodeling the facility.
Scott Polenz of Marshfield Clinic, along with other Marshfield Clinic staff, held a public forum in Colfax at the Viking Bowl in October to talk about the possibility of Marshfield opening a clinic here.
Polenz said he is “pushing to be in Colfax,” said Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, at the Colfax Village Board’s December 27 meeting.
Polenz said engineers for Marshfield Clinic had conducted walk-throughs of the clinic facility in the former Area Nursing Home building and that the engineers were working with the Colfax Health and Rehabilitation Center on what would need to be completed at the clinic before Marshfield could move in, Niggemann said.
The estimated cost for remodeling the clinic is $77,000, she said.
Polenz had sent an e-mail message asking if the village could contribute any money toward the remodel, Niggemann told the village board.
“The capital dollars needed (to make it usable for Marshfield) are higher than they expected,” she said.
Mayo Clinic announced plans last February to close the clinic in Colfax as of July 1, 2016.
Niggemann has been working since then to find another clinic provider for Colfax.
The informational meetings at Viking Bowl were intended to measure public support for Marshfield moving to Colfax and to allow local residents to ask questions about Marshfield Clinic’s services.
Surveys
Last summer, Niggemann distributed surveys in Colfax and mailed out surveys to the surrounding area in the 54730 ZIP code to gauge public opinion about a new clinic in Colfax.
Of the 1,519 surveys distributed, the village received 202 surveys back, representing a response rate of 13.3 percent overall.
The response rate for the village of Colfax was 25.5 percent.
One question on the survey asked, “Would you be willing to use a medical provider other than Mayo, such as Marshfield, Prevea Health, or Oak Leaf Clinics if this provider had a clinic site in Colfax?”
Of those who responded to the survey, 171 said “yes”; 37 said “no”; 17 said Mayo only; 2 said “not Marshfield” and 7 said it depends upon their current insurance provider.
At the informational meetings in October, approximately 50 people attended the first session, and about 20 people attended the second session.
Board of directors
Marshfield Clinic is not expecting Colfax to come up with the entire $77,000, but any amount would be helpful, Niggemann said.
The village could consider contributing toward upgrading the entryway or providing furniture for the waiting room, she said.
Polenz was looking for a dollar amount so he could take the information to the Marshfield Clinic Board of Directors to show the village is willing to help Marshfield move to Colfax, Niggemann said.
Polenz also has asked the school district to use Marshfield for sports physicals and has contacted employers in town to find out if it is possible for employees to use Marshfield with their health insurance plans, she said.
Fund balance
Several village board members asked where the money would come from if the village contributed toward Marshfield Clinic’s remodel.
The village has an unassigned fund balance of $771,000, Niggemann said.
“Unassigned” means the money is in the village’s savings account and has not been designated for any particular purpose.
The village also maintains assigned fund balances, but those amounts have been designated for a specific purpose and cannot be spent for anything else.
For example, some of the assigned fund balances reported with the village’s 2015 financial statements included $28,500 for the perpetual care of Colfax Evergreen Cemetery; $18,060 for future library operations; $154,869 for future major equipment replacement in various departments; $33,490 for future rescue squad operations; $2,363 for a spreading garden, fencing and improvements at Colfax Evergreen Cemetery; $3,230 for holiday decorations; $138,804 for future improvements to the village hall.
If the village board approved $7,000 toward the clinic, that would represent 10 percent of the total project cost, noted Village Trustee Dave Wolff.
“I think it’s a good idea. It shows the village board supports Marshfield,” said Village Trustee Mark Halpin.
The Colfax Village Board unanimously approved offering $7,000 from the village’s undesignated fund to Marshfield Clinic for remodeling and outfitting the clinic facility in the former Area Nursing Home building.
Village Trustee Casey Rihn was absent from the meeting.
Other business
In other business, the Colfax Village Board:
• Approved a training request for Colfax Police Chief William Anderson to attend the Law Enforcement Management Conference January 17 to January 19 in Superior. Police Chief Anderson will be traveling to Superior with the police chief from Bloomer.
• Approved a 2017 mobile home park license for Don and Marcia Henderson.
• Approved a 2017 second-hand jewelry dealers license for Nancy Odom Mouledoux, doing business as Twice Blessed Treasures.
• Approved a bartender operator’s license for Abigail A. Bachim from December 27, 2016, to June 30, 2017.
• Approved a fee schedule for the village that reflects current practice but also referred the fee schedule to the parks committee for further discussion about camping fees in village parks, such as the fairgrounds, and the use of Tom Prince Memorial Park.
• Approved a fee schedule for the Colfax Rescue Squad that applies to the 2017 budget presented at the rescue squad’s annual meeting in August. Fee schedule amounts include $1,146.26 for the advanced life support (ALS) non-resident base rate; ALS spinal immobilization base rate non-resident at $1,246.26; ALS resident base rate of $937.15; ALS resident base rate spinal immobilization rate of $1,037.15; basic life support (BLS) resident rate of $951.95; BLS non-resident rate of $1,010.42; BLS non-resident spinal immobilization rate of $1,110.42; a refused transport rate of $196.12.