(10-15-24) At Monday Night’s Celina City Council meeting, council members voted to table the third reading of an ordinance that would change the zoning classification (from M-2 Light Manufacturing District to B-3 Community Shopping District) of a portion of the property owned by JES Enterprises of Celina located at 1800 Industrial Drive for a future urgent clinic from Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy Health.

Celina presently has two urgent care facilities operated by area facilities…Mercer Health and Grand Lake Health System. Both local facilities have shown concern about bringing in an out-of-town facility to the area, Celina has been without a hospital since the closing of Gibbons Hospital.

Mercer Health CEO Lisa Klenke told the Daily Standard after a recent council meeting-

“We at Mercer Health do have concerns about the impact that a larger corporate health system could have on our community such as over-saturation or duplication of available services and the negative impact of potentially aggressive competition not only on Mercer Health but also on Grand Lake Health System as well.”

Gibbons Hospital in Celina closed in 1980 after the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare ended its Medicare affiliation. The hospital’s last patient was seen that year. Otis Hospital, had closed three years earlier.

Gibbons Hospital was first opened in 1923 and expanded several times. The hospital’s closure left Celina without an emergency care facility or inpatient hospital services. Many patients and staff members went to Our Lady of Mercy Hospital in Coldwater, which is now Mercer Health. 

The vote to table the item was 3 to 2. All of the current council members are all Republicans…Mark Fleck abstained. Tom Sanford, Joe Wolfe and Myron Buxton voted to table the item, while Matt Gray and Eric Baltzell voted against the tabling of the item. The Celina City Council can consider the re-zoning request again at the next council meeting.