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Show VVMC sale okayed PAROWAN A resolution approving the sale of the Valley View Medical Center in Cedar City to Intermountain Health Care was approved by the Iron County Commission last week. The approval came after months of negotiating and a recent public hearing wherein very few doubts or objections to the sale were expressed. The hospital will sale for $350,000, a price arrived on during negotiations. The actual signing of the contract and the exchange of properties will not take place until later this summer. Throughout the negotiations, the commission has been looking at three options. First, the county could sell the facility for $1. This type of sale would help keep charges to future patients lower, but would not allow the county to recoup any investment in the building and equipment. Second, IHC could purchase the hospital at a fair market price, but the multi-million dollar figure would probably be so high that IHC would not purchase. Third, the price could be negotiated. This would allow the county to regain some of tis investment and would keep the charges to future patients to a minimum. This was finally the choice used to arrive at the agreement. The facility was built in 1963 by Iron County. The county operated it until 1976, each year losing money and having to subsidize the operation with tax funds. At that time, the hospital was leased to IHC, which was operating it in the black by 1978, according to officials of the non-profit organization, as well as investing gains back into needed equipment and improvements. IHC officials have also promised that the current hospital board would still be the governing body of the facility, and that lew changes would lake place in organization and structure. |