County board rejects proposal to lease land to Meehan & Schwartz

The Winneshiek County Board voted Monday afternoon to have the county attorney draw up a resolution setting aside all property that it owns at the Winneshiek Medical Center campus to be designated for non-profit medical use only.

The resolution rejects a proposal from Meehan & Schwartz Eye Care Clinic that it be allowed to lease land on the hospital campus to build a new eye care clinic.  Supervisor Les Askelson said "putting commercial development on this property is not the best use."

The decision followed an hour-long discussion about the issue.  Included in the discussion was information that Northeast Iowa Behavioral Health would like to eventually use some of the property in question.  Several supervisors thought that use would be a better use of the land.

However, the vote does not close off the possibility that Meehan & Schwartz will expand on the hospital grounds, but it does mean they would have to negotiate with the hospital about property the hospital controls--and not with the county about county-owned property.