Stories in this Regional News Roundup are excerpted from weekly newspapers from around the region. This is part two, with part one having appeared in Saturday’s Tribune.
———
McCALL — The expansion of St. Luke’s McCall is $18 million over budget, or 43 percent of the original $42 million estimate, hospital officials said last week.
Work resumed last month on a two-story addition to the hospital, at State and Forests streets, to finish work that was paused with the onset of winter, St. Luke’s McCall Chief Operating Officer Amber Green said.
Work cannot move to the next phase of the project until St. Luke’s Health System, which operates the hospital, finds a way to shave millions off of its costs or raise more money, Green said. A team made up of health system officials and St. Luke’s McCall representatives thinks it has found ways to cut between $6 million and $7.5 million from the project cost, Green said in a June 11 memo.
The goal is to complete the project without reducing the scope of the services that are designed to help the hospital deal with growth, she said.
The hospital last week asked the McCall Memorial Hospital District board to consider contributing its entire 2021 tax levy of at least $1.8 million to help close the gap. The board will discuss the request July 21.
Also, the St. Luke’s McCall Foundation may be asked to raise an additional $1 million to $2 million above the $5.4 million already raised for the project, Green told the taxing district board last week.
The overruns were found when bids were received for interior work and remodeling plans for the current hospital, Green said.
— Tom Grote, The Star-News (McCall), Thursday
Idaho Food Bank moves deliveries to Kamiah
KAMIAH — The Idaho Food Bank has changed its monthly mobile food pantry site from the Baptist Church on Main Street in Stites to the Life Center on U.S. Highway 12 in Kamiah. The change began June 18.
According to Mike Wigen, IFB manager for north central Idaho, the change in the way the IFB distributes food was necessary because of stay-at-home orders from the governor and other COVID-19 virus precautions.
“Because of the way we are now distributing food it was necessary to find a site that would better accommodate cars and people,” Wigens said. “We had to change to a drive-in style of distribution, distributing the food boxes directly from pallets. Despite the virus, people are still in need of food and the new protocols often make it difficult for them, especially seniors. Now, they don’t even have to get out of their cars.”
— Peter DuPre, The Clearwater Progress (Kamiah), Thursday
