Lehmberg building will become the future home of Passages, Inc.
(Talk of the Town photo by Jennifer Zartman Romano) The Lehmberg building, above, is slated to eventually become the home of Passages, Inc., a local non-profit organization. On Monday, representatives of Passages and Parkview brought their plans for the future sale of the building before the Whitley County Commissioners. Parkview Whitley Hospital will no longer need the Lehmberg building when they move to the new Parkview Whitley campus now under construction.
By Jennifer Zartman Romano
A legal representative for Parkview Whitley Hospital as well as two representatives from Passages Inc. attended the Whitley County Commissioners meeting this afternoon in hopes of requesting a formal approval of the sale of the Lehmberg building, a medical office building adjacent to the current Parkview Whitley Hospital on Park Street in Columbia City.
A purchase agreement has been entered into by Passages Inc. who hopes to buy the building and move their administrative offices there. Currently, Passages Inc. is housed in the Marshall Memorial Building, but as plans for the Eagle Tech Academy, the new tech high school, proceed they will need to find other space.
The request for the commissioners' approval was in the spirit of full disclosure since the Lehmberg building had been part of the former Whitley Memorial Hospital.
In 1995, the county gave the assets of its county hospital to Parkview. Shortly thereafter, on June 28, 1995, Whitley Memorial Hospital Inc, a 501c3 non-profit organization was formed that held the assets and titles of properties involved in the transaction. Legal representatives for Parkview felt that because the non-profit entity did not exist when the original transaction documents were signed, it was in everyone's best interest to seek formal approval of the sale of the Lehmberg building.
Commissioner Don Amber went on record to say that he is an employee of Parkview and has been a hospital employee since the acquisition in 1995, having been involved in the discussion at that time when he served as a director at the hospital. He added that he would abstain from voting on the matter, but said he recalled a conversation during that time that indicated that if the building or land would ever no longer be used by the hospital, that it would revert back to the county.
Both the Parkview representative and the county's attorney, Dan Sigler, could not determine if such language existed in the agreements signed between the county and Parkview in 1995.
Rethlake questioned whether Whitley County Council would also need to approve the present sale since they were involved in the original transaction. Sigler was asked to review the documents to determine whether Amber or Rethlake's concerns were addressed.
Commissioners George Schrumpf and Rethlake approved the formal request to approve the sale of the Lehmberg building to Passages Inc.