After receiving a letter from the Carroll County Board of Supervisors Board Attorney Kevin Horan canceling her lease for the Carrollton Family Clinic, nurse practitioner Kara McKay-White posted the letter on Facebook informing her patients of the change, and that she is seeking a temporary location.
The county is in negotiations with Tyler Holmes Memorial Hospital in Winona with the hopes the hospital will take over the clinic. According to negotiations discussed at a recent meeting of the board of supervisors, McKay-White can work for Tyler Holmes if she desires to and still treat her existing patient base.
McKay-White, who signed as Kara McKay, signed a lease agreement with the Carroll County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 12, 2011, with then-Board President Honey Ashmore signing on behalf of the county. The lease states McKay would take control of the building for a $1 a year. The lease was a five-year agreement.
The existing lease should have expired Sept. 12, 2016 with a clause to renew the lease each year after that time. However, McKay has been in the building past the expiration of the lease, still set at $1 a year. There was also a list of items needed that, according to Supervisors, were purchased for the clinic through a grant.
McKay-White’s post outraged many who questioned the legality of the board’s actions. However, the supervisors said it they only want what’s best for residents of Carroll County.
In a statement, Board Attorney Kevin Horan said, “At the Nov. 4 regular meeting, the Board of Supervisors chose to revisit the existing lease agreement pertaining to the Carrollton Clinic. The board’s primary objective in taking this action is to ensure an accessible healthcare option for the citizens of Carroll County in the future. Hopefully, this goal can be accomplished seamlessly and without an interruption in services being provided at this time.”
McKay-White’s husband, Andy White, said he feels the board could have given his wife notice before it happened.
In the letter, it does invite McKay-White to come before the board and still negotiate the terms of her lease or she has until December 13 to have all of her belongings moved. The next board meeting in Nov. 25, in Carrollton.
The letter states that the lease is terminated, but it doesn’t state that McKay herself has to vacate, but she has to turn the building back over to the Supervisors and allow them to re-let it.
White said his wife has had a particularly tough year, but the clinic is open four out of five days a week, just like every other clinic.
“Kara had surgery earlier this year and then her mother and her grandmother died. When she had surgery, she was supposed to have been out for six weeks instead of four,” White said.
White said it hurts because the supervisors never talked to McKay-White about their decision. He said his wife feels the board “blindsided” her and if there was an issue, the board could have discussed it with his wife.
“They never said anything to her about it at all,” White said. “I just want to know why they did it.”
He said McKay-White’s heart has always been for her patients and she is seeking another location.
“But, it will not be back in that building,” White said. “If you go around a dog and it bites you, you don’t go around that dog again.”
