Facilitated or mediated.
Call them what you will, but administrators for both Stormont-Vail and Newman Regional Health have agreed to extra conversations about Stormont’s proposed $30 million medical facility for Emporia and Newman Regional’s proposed zoning code text changes to add extra layers of oversight before local governing bodies sign off on that project or others like it.
Newman Regional’s decision came after three separate executive sessions totaling over 90 minutes Wednesday. Chief Executive Officer Cathy Pimple:
Pimple will lead the hospital’s discussion team as per the unanimous board vote Wednesday.
Stormont-Vail told KVOE News last week it had also agreed to mediation as requested by the city of Emporia. Pimple says the proposed text changes are the best path forward for the hospital, but she also says there have been email conversations between the two leadership teams, with an in-person meeting tentatively coming later this month.
Exactly how the mediated process will work is to be determined. Pimple tells KVOE News she wants to meet with Emporia City Manager Trey Cocking before that process is finalized.
Stormont approached Newman Regional in August with its plans. Newman Regional then developed a set of zoning code text changes announced in late October. The proposal would prompt outside medical entities to detail their facility or service plans, list similar or identical services already provided locally and demonstrate how those currently-provided services don’t meet the community need. Plans that gain approval from the Planning Commission, which next meets Dec. 19 after a four-plus-hour conversation last month, and the City Commission would then get Conditional Use Permits for construction.
