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Rice Lake (WQOW) - A former area medical facility will not get a new lease on life.
The Lakeview Medical Center Hospital on Rice Lake's North Main Street served the area for more than 30 years. But it's been empty ever since the new hospital opened up last year. And a nearly 2 year effort to sell or even give away the old building has failed.
Now, the hospital's board of directors has decided it will be demolished, and the land will be put up for sale.
The board says three nursing homes were seriously interested in the facility. But the large amount of unusable space and the $200,000 annual utility bill discouraged interested occupants.
The board also explored donating the building for a homeless or domestic violence shelter, senior apartments, or a veteran's affairs hospital but hit the same roadblock.
Plans now call for recycling and re-purposing as much as possible from the building. The estimated cost of demolition is $500,000.
