Blakely borough buys Mid-Valley Hospital for community/civic center

BLAKELY — The former Mid-Valley Hospital belongs to Blakely borough.

The borough acquired the defunct hospital at 1400 Main St. for $700,000 this month from Peckville Hospital Company LLC, a subsidiary of Franklin, Tennessee-based Community Health Systems, which is the parent company of Commonwealth Health, according to a property transaction recorded Wednesday. The sale included the hospital’s parking lots along Hospital and First streets.

A restriction in the deed prevents the property from being used as an “acute care general hospital” without prior written consent from the seller.

But Blakely has no plans to use it as a hospital. The borough bought the building to transform it into a “community/civic center,” returning the facility to the community that founded it in 1908.

There is not yet a timeline for the project, though borough Manager Chris Paone plans to develop one over the coming months.

“We want to get it done, but we don’t want to move too fast that we forget something that we wanted to have,” he said. “We want to make sure we give it our due diligence and do it the right way the first time.”

With the deed now in hand, the borough will speak with architects and start working on a master plan, Paone said.

Although it’s preliminary, the borough’s goal is to build a gym where the original hospital once stood, Paone said. Following the century-old building’s demolition in late 2014, Commonwealth Health used the space as a parking lot.

The gym would tie into the existing building, and the borough hopes to outfit it with a large court that could be divided into two smaller basketball courts, batting cages, a small concession area and a meeting room for gatherings, Paone said, envisioning people renting out the gym and using the room for birthday parties.

Ideas for the nearly 37,000-square-foot, 3½-story hospital building are even more preliminary. Built in 1982 — and the last remaining piece of the Mid-Valley Hospital — the building is in good shape with no major issues, Paone said. It only needs some work to its HVAC system, which the borough knew about before buying it, he said. Commonwealth remodeled the basement, ground and first floors, although the second floor is untouched from its time as a hospital, he said.

The borough wants to have community meeting spaces in the building, and officials discussed housing a senior center and day care inside it, he said.

While it is based in Blakely, it’s not just for Blakely, Paone said.

“It’s a community/civic center. You’re going to have kids from Archbald and Jessup and Dickson City and Throop and all over the place,” he said. “It is really an area-wide type of facility.”

The Mid-Valley Hospital formed from a community effort in 1908 as Midvalley residents banded together to raise money and build their own hospital rather than travel to Scranton or Carbondale. Early hospital proponents advocated it could save the lives of wounded coal miners with faster medical treatment.

The hospital accepted its first patient in August 1912 and quickly became a landmark in Peckville. It expanded with additions in 1928 and 1982, as well as a modernization project in 1969.

To adapt to a changing health care environment, including competition from larger hospitals, Mid-Valley Hospital merged with Moses Taylor Hospital in Scranton and became part of Moses Taylor Health Care System in July 1997.

Commonwealth Health’s parent company acquired the hospital in January 2012 when it purchased the Moses Taylor Health Care System. Commonwealth closed the Mid-Valley Hospital two years later in July 2014 and reopened it as a walk-in clinic.

Commonwealth then tore down portions of the hospital in December 2014, leaving only the 1982 addition now owned by Blakely.

The urgent care closed about a year and a half ago, and the primary care clinic closed in early February, Paone said. Commonwealth relocated the primary care clinic to its existing location on Viewmont Drive in Dickson City, according to a March email from the health care firm.

The borough had looked at building a community or civic center for years but couldn’t find a suitable location, Paone said. The town reached out to Commonwealth Health after learning of the closure, he said.

Blakely bought the property outright using money from its general fund, he said. The town will explore state and federal grant funding to pay for the project, which Paone estimates could cost $5 to $6 million. The appraised value of the building, which Paone believes will exceed $700,000, can be used as required matches for grants, he said.

The borough is also working with state Rep. Kyle Mullins, D-112, Blakely, and state Sen. Rosemary Brown, R-40, Middle Smithfield Twp.

Mullins commended the project in a statement Thursday.

“This is great news for area residents, especially because it will be located in a section of the valley not currently served by a community center,” the Blakely resident said. “I applaud Blakely Borough for its leadership and foresight in initiating this project and I’m excited to help in any way I can.”

Mayor Jeanette Acciare-Mariani aspired to build a community center when she first took office as mayor in 2006, and on Thursday, she said she’s glad the borough waited.

“The Mid-Valley Hospital … was always special to me,” she said. “I was born there.”

With restaurants dotting Peckville’s Main Street near the hospital property, the mayor believes the additional traffic will drive more customers to the businesses and potentially help bring more businesses to town.

It will be for all ages, she said.

“The youngsters, primarily, they would have a place to go and practice whether it be basketball or batting cages or whatever is going to be there,” she said. “And (it will be) a nice place to go for the senior citizens.”

As she pushed her 1-year-old grandson, Noah, in a stroller past the hospital with her 3-year-old grandson, Luca, in tow, borough resident Erin Tully laughed as she said, “I could bring the baby and myself down here. We’ll do our activities, and we’ll go home together.”

Tully has lived on nearby Burton Street for 40 years and used the hospital’s services while it was operational.

Her neighborhood initially had “tons of children” four decades ago, but those children grew up and moved away, she said. Now, they’re slowly returning with their own children, she said.

It’s the perfect location for the center, she said. She expects to take her own grandchildren when it opens.

“In the 40 years I’ve lived here, Blakely borough has done nothing but progress,” Tully said. “Every time you turn around, they’re doing something that’s going to benefit the community.”