HONESDALE, PA — Wayne Memorial Hospital plans to start building a new patient tower on its main campus in September. The structure will house 50 private patient rooms and subsume a portion of the current upper parking lot.

The hospital demolished five houses it owned, including a few recently bought, to make room for more parking spaces. Expansion by non-profit institutions sometimes creates anxiety among community members worried about the tax base, but WMH, a considerable landowner in Northeast PA, pays taxes on a significant amount of the property it owns—including the property on which it will expand to make room for parking spaces, according to CEO David Hoff.

“We pay property taxes on all those spaces,” said Hoff. “Our primary mission is to heal, but it helps to be a good neighbor, too, in the community we all share.”

In the last 12 months, the hospital and its foundation together paid close to $160,000 in school and property taxes to Wayne and Pike County tax collectors. While not required to pay those taxes, hospital administrators say Wayne Memorial benefits from tax-supported services and feels an ethical obligation to “be a good citizen.”