SalusCare seeks 20-year lease with the city
Hard hit by Hurricane Ian, mental health care non-profit also asks for help with unexpected utility-related bill
The city’s lease with Cape Coral’s primary provider of mental health care services came before city council Wednesday.
City staff said they would work with SalusCare following comments made during public input about SalusCare’s lease with the city and a large bill the provider received for a backflow problem.
SalusCare President and Chief Executive Officer Stacey Cook began her public input by thanking Council for the use of the city-owned building at 1105 Cultural Park Blvd.
“We have been able to serve about 6,000 Cape Coral residents a year,” she said.
Unfortunately, when Hurricane Ian hit, it soaked the building from top to bottom.
“We have spent every week with FEMA and finally arrived at a point to where we are able to obtain the funds to rebuild the building back to the way it was,” she said.
SalusCare has a 10-year lease with the city for the building, but requests a 20-year lease, a time-sensitive request as it is tied to requests from FEMA.
“We have limited time to make some decisions,” Cook said.
She also brought up a bill for a backflow problem, which has a price tag of $20,000. With SalusCare being a nonprofit, their margins are already in the negative, Cook said.
Cook asked Council for its help in reconsidering the bill and paying it another way.
Once public input concluded, many council members shared their desire to work with SalusCare to come up with a solution.
“I really would like to take care of the issue,” Councilmember Dr. Derrick Donnell said. “SalusCare is very important for the community at large.”
City Manager Mike Ilczyszyn said SalusCare has a lease that is expiring.
“We have been moving away from leases,” he said. “We can do some other arrangement.”
As far as the backflow, without having any other information, Ilczyszyn guessed that there was not a backflow certification on file and the city fixed it and billed for the repair.
He said after they meet with SalusCare, he will put together an executive summary so the council can have a discussion.
To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com