Park County commissioners are reviewing a lease to Northwest Health Care for a small office space at the county annex in Powell. They say the intent is to learn what services are offered in the space and potentially revisit the lease terms before deciding whether to renew the agreement.

Commissioner Kelly Simone, who recommended the review, said she heard questions about the arrangement while on the campaign trail last year.

“I know there’s a large number of the public that have some concerns with this being in a taxpayer-funded building,” Simone said at the commission’s Sept. 2 meeting. “And so I think that’s the other thing that we need to consider.”

Northwest Health Care has occasionally been targeted by pro-life proponents, who are worried about the clinic referring pregnant women to abortion providers and possibly providing the morning after pill, which some view as a form of abortion. Commissioners have heard criticisms of the lease since first entering into the arrangement in 2017.

According to Northwest Health Care’s mission statement, the private, nonprofit “provides judgment-free access to high-quality prevention, screening and treatment services, empowering each individual to take control of their health.”

Executive Director Michelle Gutierrez said the organization focuses on prevention efforts.

“So once someone is pregnant, then we refer them on,” Gutierrez said in an interview, but “we’re here for prevention, which is what I tell everyone. So it’s all about preventing that [abortion] from even becoming a choice.”

Northwest Health Care’s office at the Powell annex has been open for just a half-day a week: on Wednesdays from 1-5 p.m. However, if a new lease is approved, Gutierrez said they plan to expand their services to a full day.

Simone questioned whether it was a good use of county space to lease an office to an organization that has only used it for a half-day per week, though Commissioner Dossie Overfield noted that county workers are able to use the 100-square-foot space when it’s not being used by Northwest Health Care.

The nonprofit also operates daily at a Cody location, which is not in a government building. Gutierrez said the organization used to have its own clinic space in Powell, but when that closed, people asked for services to still be available. That led to the organization — then known as Northwest Family Planning — leasing space alongside Park County Public Health at the annex. Northwest Health Care currently pays the county $503 a year for its use of the office.

According to its website, the organization offers: wellness exams, sports physicals, minor health care services, contraceptive counseling and supplies, breast exams and mammogram referrals, sexually transmitted disease testing, STD treatment and rapid HIV testing, nonjudgmental pregnancy testing and counseling, and emergency contraception counseling and supplies. 

Gutierrez said the same services are provided in Powell as in Cody, and on a sliding fee scale — meaning patients who can’t afford to pay anything, such as for birth control, are accepted for free.

At last week’s meeting, Simone said she wants a clearer idea of how it all works before agreeing to accept a new lease.

“If we’re doing screening and treatment, and it’s health care … how is that working?” she said. “I guess I need more information on services and how that’s working. If it’s administrative, just an office, that’s different.”

Commissioner Lloyd Thiel seconded the notion of wanting to make sure the lease is in line with the others with the county, which are generally done on a price per square foot basis with a yearly 2.7% increase in rent.

The county’s current lease with Northwest Health Care expired Wednesday.