One step at a time

With the long-anticipated approval of a $16 million plan appraisal, the Platte Valley Healthcare Project (PVHP) is finally in a position to move forward on construction of the North Platte Valley Medical Center. In the next phase, First Interstate Bank will underwrite the loan, a procedure that is expected to take about two weeks.

“I know people are frustrated with how long this seems to take,” said Will Faust, chairman of the PVHP, “but this is a very complicated process, and we have a lot of irons in the fire that are contingent on working though the funding.”

Faust said the approved appraisal has also been submitted to the USDA for review and final approval of the loan.

“Once everyone is comfortable with the loan commitment and the money starts to be released, we can really start to make some progress.”

One sign of progress, Faust said, is that the PVHP has named Mark Pesognelli and Health Management Services to act as the owner’s representative during construction. Faust said he and Pesognelli met with Sletten Construction as well as engineers and subcontractors to discuss a punch list of items that need to be cleared before construction can begin.

“We still have a lot of kinks to iron out,” Faust said. “Some of these contracts are months old and the cost of materials and other aspects of them may have changed.”

Sletten also needs some time to work out details with subcontractors, he noted. 

Faust said the group agreed to March 15 as the official construction start date.

“There may be some activity prior to that, but we wanted a date we were confident that we could meet and have everything ready to go. Besides,” he added, “the weather should be more amenable for building by then.”