MORGANTOWN — In March, MECCA 911 moved into a new state-of-the-art facility overlooking the Monongahela River valley from a high atop the Morgantown Industrial Park.
Now, Mon Health System is taking a long look at the property it left behind at 74 Mon General Drive.
Mon Health System President and CEO David Goldberg met in a work session Wednesday with the Monongalia County Commission.
“That property and that building, I think, is a really good opportunity for us for some ancillary services – not clinical of course,” Goldberg said. “Also, as a not-for-profit, health care margins are lean. I’d like to work with the county to find a way so that building could be used for some of our ancillary services. We also understand you need to recoup some dollars for it.”
The .82-acre property the building sits on was actually deeded to the Monongalia County Building Commission by Mon General Hospital in 1996 for the specific purpose of building a new 911 call center.
Over the next year, the building commission bonded approximately $700,000 to construct the roughly 5,360 square-foot disaster proof facility and leased it to the county commission to satisfy payment of the bonds.
One of the stipulations of the 1996 deed transfer is that Mon General, now Mon Health Medical Center, has right of first refusal on the property.
While part of Wednesday’s meeting was conducted in executive session, Commission President Sean Sikora said the parties are negotiating fair compensation for the building, not the land.
“The commission wants to be a good partner. Mon Health has been a good partner in giving us the land to build on. We just want to feel like we’re doing our due diligence. We had to take out bonds through the building commission to actually build the building. I think we’re in agreement that we just want to figure out some consideration for the building and take away the value of the land,” he said. “We know the value of the land has appreciated, but it was your land. You gave it to us. We’re willing to give it back.”
According to information available through the county’s GIS parcel viewer, the land was most recently appraised at $218,300 and the building at $480,900.
It was one of several properties to receive a significant infrastructure upgrade when the $4.1 million Mon General Drive access road was completed in 2013. The road was the first project in Monongalia County Development District (TIF) No. 3.
