The Cleveland Clinic, which runs Lakewood Hospital, says the current facility isn’t financially viable and the family health clinic is a better alternative. The Clinic will stop admitting patients on February 5^th. But Kevin Young of “Save Lakewood Hospital” says the city needs a full-service hospital, and if voters approve the referendum there is time to reopen it.

“Yeah, we can definitely turn this around. The hospital will be standing empty and all its assets will be there. If we can turn this around in March we can open the hospital again.”

Young says if the issue passes they want to open the bidding process to other health care providers interested in running the facility as a full service hospital. He says Lakewood city officials rejected previous proposals that could have kept it open. Last November Lakewood voters narrowly defeated a similar ballot issue to stop the closure.