City manager backs letter supporting Covenant Health grant request; cites Cross Insurance Center attendance gains

City Manager Weir said at the March 9 workshop that he will submit a letter of support for Covenant Health’s federal funding request unless a councilor objects.

Weir said Covenant Health — the nonprofit that owns the nursing home where the city’s public-health department shares space — requested federal spending support to fund building upgrades. “They’ve asked us to submit a letter of support for that application,” Weir said, adding the request was for approximately $3,000,000 to support upgrades that would benefit nursing-home residents and the public-health operations located in the same building. He said council does not yet have details on whether Covenant will provide any matching funds and that staff would follow up on that question.

Separately, Weir reported the Cross Insurance Center hosted 11 days of high-school basketball and recorded about 40,000 visitors — “about a 25% increase over last year” — which he called evidence of the city’s investment paying off.

Councilors did not object to staff submitting the Covenant Health support letter during the workshop, and Weir said he would ask the applicant about matching commitments and return with that information if available.

Weir also reminded the council about next week’s National League of Cities conference in Washington, D.C., which will leave several councilors and an assistant city manager out of next week’s committee meetings; he asked department heads to keep agendas light and noted the city would still refer at least one parks-and-recreation item to the finance committee because of its timing.

No formal action on the Covenant Health request appeared on the workshop agenda; Weir said staff would submit the support letter unless the council voiced objections.