A Hazleton councilman cautioned that delays in approving a
lease-purchase agreement for a hangar at Hazleton Regional Airport could
derail Lehigh Valley Hospital’s plans for stationing medical
helicopters there – and jeopardize the hospital’s plans for obtaining
trauma center accreditation for Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton.
Council Vice President Keith Bast on Friday criticized some members
of council for removing two airport-related items from today’s meeting
agenda.
But one council member said the resolutions were removed because council wasn’t properly informed of either proposal.
One of the items would authorize the city to enter a lease-purchase
agreement for a hangar that was erected by Edward Maranuk. A related
proposal, which is listed in a separate resolution, would allow the city
to enter a business building and aircraft space lease agreement with
Lehigh Valley Hospital, which would station up to two medical
helicopters and associated air medical ambulance services at the hangar.
Costs and other details related to the lease agreements were not
disclosed in resolutions that were included on the meeting agenda
released early last week. Bast, however, slammed his peers for removing
the agreements from a revised agenda that was released on Friday.
Bast said the deal would not only generate enough revenue to pay off
the hangar in a relatively short amount of time, but would result in
expedited medical services to the community.
He said he’s puzzled by the decision made by some council members to remove the resolutions from the agenda.
“LVH and (MedEvac) have indicated they want to move into the airport
before Jan. 10, 2014,” Bast said in an email to the Standard-Speaker.
“This move is part of the merger and commitment to immediately improve
medical services in the city of Hazleton and the surrounding region. LVH
indicated this is the first step to obtain trauma center accreditation
for the City of Hazleton Hospital. LVH has the busiest level one trauma
center in the State of PA.”
Stationing helicopters at Hazleton Regional Airport would “save
lives” in the Hazleton area, spur economic development and increase job
growth at the hospital and throughout the region, Bast said.
Council approved a similar lease-purchase agreement for a different
hangar at the airport a few months ago. That hangar has since been
filled to capacity, which brought about the need for a second hangar,
Bast said.
“The city would buy the (second) hangar and MedEvac would be the
tenant,” Bast said. “And, three (council members) do not want it. How
ridiculous is that? To be able to get a trauma center and they don’t
want it? My message would for the community: If this doesn’t go through,
if they die of a heart attack or trauma, sue the city council – sue the
three of them.”
Councilwoman Jean Mope on Friday confirmed that the lease agreement
resolutions were removed from the agenda – and that Bast unilaterally
attempted to get the items resubmitted for consideration at Monday’s
meeting.
Mope, however, said items can only be added to the council agenda if they are requested by two or more members.
The items were removed, she said, because a new council lineup was
not informed of either proposal until an early version of the meeting
agenda was released to council last Thursday.
“It wasn’t fair to the new council members coming on who received no
information on this as far as David (Sosar) told me,” Mope said. “We
didn’t know anything about any of this stuff. None of us received enough
information or had enough time to ask questions. Once again they are
rushing legislation through. They’re going to have to learn things
aren’t going to be done that way any more. We need to have time to
review and to ask questions so we can serve the public properly.”
Brian Downs, Lehigh Valley Health Network’s director of media
relations, said on Friday that the health network doesn’t typically
disclose details about its discussions concerning real estate until it
is prepared to make an official announcement.
Mope said she personally has a number of questions about the hangar
and helicopter lease, including why council arranged for an executive
session to discuss the issue this morning with “lame duck members of
city council,” why the city didn’t share with council plans for applying
for a grant for acquiring the hangar, and who in the city authorized
the city engineer to conduct a title search on the hangar.
“We weren’t informed of anything,” Mope said. “We’re not even sure
who we’re having at an executive session. We want to have the
information and we want to be able to give the information to the public
so the public has an understanding of what’s going on.”
The Standard-Speaker obtained a pair of confidential emails that
Dominic Yannuzzi, of Alfred Benesch – the city’s engineering firm –
distributed among council. One of the emails is a response to questions
asked by council members.
According to the emails, lease payments and fuel sales stemming from
the Lehigh Valley hangar lease will total approximately $46,000 per
year. The lease would have a three-year term, with unlimited one-year
extensions, and lease payments would increase by 5 percent in the second
and third years, the emails say.
Lehigh Valley would pay for all improvements and utility extensions to the hangar, as well as internal cleaning services.
Revenue from the Lehigh Valley arrangement and another roughly
$39,000 in lease and fuel sale revenue from a lease-purchase agreement
at a different hangar would offset costs of the second hangar, the
emails state. The city could also use a possible grant from the state
Bureau of Aviation to cover costs for a second hangar, Yannuzzi wrote.
Council meets at 10 a.m. today at City Hall.
Source: http://standardspeaker.com