CARBONDALE -- The city of Carbondale has been without a hospital for more than three years, but the owner of the Marian Community hospital building just got one step closer to opening it back up.
Marian Community Hospital in Carbondale closed in 2012. Part of the building reopened in May as a drug and alcohol treatment center.
Now the woman who runs the treatment center received a special zoning variance that clears the way for Marian Community to be a hospital again.
Just Believe Recovery Center, a drug and alcohol treatment facility, has been open since May, filling about one third of Marian Community Hospital. The rest of the building sits empty.
The new owner of the hospital on Lincoln Avenue has also started the process in this becoming a hospital again.
Last week, Carbondale's zoning board approved a variance for a hospital. There are several more hurdles to go.
"It provides the first step of a long multiple-phased process for application through the Department of Health and the various different state level licensures," explained CEO Gary Davis.
The other two-thirds of the Marian Community Hospital building has been empty since it closed in 2012. But the new owner says it's still in pretty good shape. It really only needs some cosmetic work.
CEO Gary Davis showed us parts of the closed up hospital, a building that many people in Carbondale still miss.
"Carbondale lost all this, Mid Valley lost it. Now we have to go to Honesdale or Scranton to get any type of help. I think it's a beautiful, it's a great thing they're doing putting this thing up there," said Carbondale resident Michael Caporali.
Aside from convenience and safety, others think a hospital in Carbondale will provide much needed jobs.
"Any business in Carbondale would be a wonderful asset to us, and I think we should all support it. And I think it's a wonderful thing," said Janet Price at Barbour's Bakery.
The zoning variance is just the first step in Marian Community becoming a full hospital again.
Officials told us that getting a license to operate a hospital can take up to a year and fixing up the building could cost about $10 million.