Cliff Buchan
News Editor

By the time the last page of the November calendar is torn off, the Memorial Hospital District is likely to be no more.

The governing board last Thursday took its final actions, approving the necessary resolutions and motions that will result in the decertification of the hospital district that has served northern Washington County and parts of Anoka County since 1960.

All that remains now is for district attorney John Miller to properly notify the auditors in the two counties and process the paper work with the Secretary of Stateís Office in St. Paul. Those steps should be completed yet this month, board members were told last week.

The final duty for some of the board members will be to deliver checks to the municipalities as their share in the remaining assets of the district that once provided the Memorial Hospital operation in Forest Lake.

At its meeting last Thursday at the American Legion Post 225 in Forest Lake, one of the boardís final duties was to write all final checks on district obligations and to determine its final remaining assets for distribution to the five remaining municipalities that make up the Memorial Hospital District.

With total assets of $86,915.60, that means each of the five cities in the district will receive $17,383.12.

The hospital board is on record strongly encouraging each municipality to use the funds for some form of healthcare or first aid training that could benefit the public.

End of an era

The Nov. 9 actions that will bring the curtain down on the hospital district came with little fanfare. But they did bring to a close the hospital district era that started in 1960 when the cities of Forest Lake, Hugo, Lino Lakes, Centerville and the townships of Forest Lake and Columbus agreed to be part of the district.

The push for a hospital to serve the area began several years earlier when citizens in Forest Lake formed a non-profit group to acquire land for the hospital and raise the initial funds to help start the medical facility.

Memorial Hospital resulted and it served the area until 1998 when it closed. Three years earlier, the local hospital board joined hands with Fairview in a management agreement and lease of the district facilities. When Fairview Lakes Regional Medical Center opened in 1998, the Memorial Hospital days were over.

At the end of 2005, Fairview exercised its lease options to buy the Forest Lake facility and campus for $1. Fairview has since sold the building and a section of the campus to the Lakes International Language Academy and the balance of the grounds to Duffy Development for the construction of affordable housing units in partnership with HSI, Inc. of Washington County.

The final months of 2006 for the hospital board have been devoted to housekeeping chores that will end the district once and for all.

The district today has five remaining members. Forest Lake city and township are now one governmental unit and Columbus this fall incorporated as a city.

The actions last week found approval from Mike Perreault, chairman of the board who represents Hugo; Sam Mattson, Forest Lake; Barbara Hvass, Columbus; Ron Marier, Lino Lakes; and Joan Voelk, at-large. Centerville has been unable to find a board representative for several years.

Final steps

The final motions last week covered approval of the resolution and final order for the dissolution of the district. The motion included recitals and findings of fact.

The motion authorizes Miller, as legal counsel via the firm Peterson, Fram & Bergman, P.A., to carry out all final steps. The board also approved the drafting of a check for $7500 to be placed in escrow and held by Miller for seven years for any unforeseen expenses that may arise and to cover costs of record keeping.

It is expected that at the end of the seven-year period, all documents and records will be turned over to the Minnesota Historical Society for review and safekeeping.

The board last week also certified the election results from Nov. 6 that saw new members elected from each of the cities, minus Centerville and Lino Lakes where no one had filed. The new board will never take office, however, barring some unusual circumstance, Miller said.

The end was bittersweet for Mattson who spent more than 20 years on the hospital board.

ìItís a good feeling and a sad feeling,î Mattson said as the final motions passed the board. As board clerk, Mattsonís signature was the final step on each motion.

Mattson said he believed that the founders of the district would agree the mission has been accomplished. ìI feel confident their wishes are being carried on,î he said. ìWe left them a little better off.î

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Forest Lake Times
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Forest Lake, MN 55025
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