PINEDALE – With the future of the critical access hospital in the air, the Sublette County Rural Health Care District has started walking down two roads: continuing the design for the Bloomfield site while also waiting to hear from the Sublette County Commission on the price they’d be willing to sell the current Pinedale Clinic.

On Tuesday, clinic staff and board representatives John Godfrey and Wendy Boman met all day with Plan1 Architects, trying to reduce the square footage and incorporate some value engineering into the proposed Bloomfield site plans. The floor plan was reduced from approximately 52,000 square feet to 49,000 square feet, reducing the price tag roughly $1,050,000.

At Wednesday’s regular board meeting, however, Boman and Chuck Bacheller both expressed concern about continuing the design before hearing from county commissioners. The county is getting the four-acre Pinedale clinic site appraised and is expected to have that appraisal in hand as soon as today.

“We need to wait and see what the commissioners say,” Boman said. “We’re working with taxpayers’ money – they elected us to be frugal.”

Commissioner David Burnett was at the Wednesday meeting and expressed concern whether there was real intent to purchase the clinic site or whether they were just trying to satisfy the USDA, and whether a special meeting was needed to decide a price tag next week or whether it could wait until the regular June 5 county meeting.

“I want a hospital, wherever it goes,” Bacheller said. “I’m not set in stone at either place.”

The board, however, decided that waiting until June 5 to get a quote from the commission would be fine.

“I’m okay with waiting as long as we don’t do anything else until then,” Boman said.

Godfrey called the situation a “catch-22,” noting that the USDA wants to see an updated design and it also wants the board to look at the clinic site. With the Town of Pinedale rejecting the idea of selling the adjacent baseball fields to be used as part of the hospital, building at the current location might need some clever design.

“We have to get an assessment what can fit on the property,” Godfrey said.

The Bloomfield site also needs to have a wetland delineation, but the board voted, 3-2, against having the study done before hearing from the county. Boman, Bacheller and Godfrey voted against the motion.

The board also discussed the management options for the CAH on Wednesday, which will need to be included in the loan application. The board can either hire a management company or hire its own executive staff.

Hiring a management company would cost more in the short term, but it would bring in some expertise and vet and hire the administrator. It would also take some of the board’s autonomy to run the CAH away, but make the process easier.

Hiring the executive staff, such as an chief executive officer or chief operations officer, on the other hand, would cost less, but require time to find the right person who will ultimately be responsible for the success of the CAH.

“The most fiscally responsible thing we need to do is make sure this hospital is a success,” board chairman Scott Scherbel said. “We don’t have time to make a wrong decision.”

After some discussion, the board decided to interview three to five management companies to get a better understanding what they offer before making a decision.

Also at the meeting, next year’s budget was approved, which is roughly $958,000 less than last year’s.

Two contracts, for technical services and marketing, are also expiring soon. The board decided to hire an IT person rather than continue a contract. The position will be paid $60,000 plus $22,874 in benefits, saving the district about $100,000 per year.

Hiring a new marketing, human resources manager and grant writer, however, was tabled until the June meeting.