Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Clearing the way for future development of the Shawano Medical Center property after the hospital moves to a new location next year isn’t proving as easy as local officials might have hoped.
That’s because of a deed restriction attached to the property more than 100 years ago when the property was donated to the city.
Waiving the restriction will require approval from the heirs of Susan Smalley, the woman who donated the land, and that still hasn’t happened.
City officials hired the law firm of Davis and Kuelthau in December 2012 to track down the heirs.
Eleven heirs were identified early this year and have been contacted, but there is still no answer to the deed restriction question.
City Administrator Brian Knapp said there are negotiations occurring with an attorney representing the heirs.
An agreement between the city and ThedaCare to market the property for redevelopment is contingent on resolving the deed restriction.
Susan Smalley donated the roughly three-acre park property to the city in 1901, according to a news article in the April 30, 1931, edition of the Shawano County Journal about plans for a hospital on the site.
According to the deed restriction, the property reverts back to the heirs if it is used for anything other than a park.
The site became home to Shawano Medical Center in 1931.
Officials have no explanation for why a hospital was allowed to locate on the property, and there is nothing in the record that shows the deed restriction was ever waived.
SMC purchased additional land for expansion over the years, and the hospital campus now occupies about 10 acres. The deed restriction applies only to the original three.
The finalized list of heirs includes no direct blood relatives of Susan Smalley, who died in New Jersey in 1909, according to a genealogy chart provided to the city by Davis and Kuelthau.
Instead, the heirs are the descendants of the second marriage of Georgianna Hoadley, of New York, who was previously married to Susan’s son, William. The park property was part of a marital settlement when the first marriage ended.