The dispute is over. Now it's time to get down to business with finalizing plans for a hospital in South Walton, Sacred Heart officials said this week.
Progress now lies in the offices of engineers, architects and financial experts.
Those intricacies had been put on hold since January when Fort Walton Beach Medical Center and Twin Cities Hospital in Niceville filed legal challenges with the state to Sacred Heart's plans to build a hospital to serve the Destin-South Walton area, placing the project in limbo. One of the first orders of business is to select a site. Two pieces of land on U.S. 98, both owned by The St. Joe Co., are being considered for the hospital and an adjoining doctors' office building. A decision on the location is expected this summer, said Sacred Heart spokesman Mike Burke. Construction of the office building could begin as early as January 2001, Burke said, with completion probably at the end of 2001.