By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- After a discussion in executive session at their Monday meeting, the Massena Memorial Hospital Board of Managers made no decision on an affiliate.

At Wednesday's Town Council meeting, MMH CEO Robert Wolleben said he was hoping the hospital board "will give us direction on which we should be talking to more substantively."

Hospital officials are considering two larger health networks in New York state. At the town board meeting, Wolleben said he was hoping to be able to name both or have it narrowed to one. Following Monday's hospital board meeting, MMH Public Relations DIrector Tina Corcoran said they aren't ready to name either and said it could be another two months.

"He (Wolleben) hopes in the next six to eight weeks, but I don’t think they (hospital board) really have an exact date," Corcoran said.

The only clue Wolleben has given to the potential affiliates' identities is a vague geographic reference.

“There’s one on the western part of the state and one on the eastern part of the state,” he said at the Town Council meeting.

In addition to pursuing an affiliate, MMH is also trying to get non-profit status and severe their ties as a town-owned municipal hospital.

Wolleben at Monday's MMH board meeting said the state recently gave final approval to their Certificate of Need, which they need to run the hospital once they privatize. He said the state also signed their Certificate of Incorporation, which allows them to set up the non-profit entity.

He said the extensive IRS application will take some time to get filled out.

“There's a whole list of things that have to be filed," Wolleben said. “Bios of all of us on the board have to be submitted, so all kinds of documents have to be sent in.

“There's six to eight months for IRS to turn around, assuming everything is in order … could take a little longer than that."