St. Luke's Hospital-Miners Campus has agreed to give Coaldale Borough a cash donation in exchange for some of the services that the borough provides the non-profit hospital tax-free, according to borough officials.

The donation is the latest development in the complicated relationship between the hospital and the three entities that collect property taxes in Coaldale.Borough officials recently announced that the hospital recently agreed to contribute $34,000 to the borough's coffers.Council president Thomas Keerans said the board asked for the donation because the hospital does use services which costs the borough money, despite its tax-exempt status.Miners Campus has always been classified as tax-exempt because it is a non-profit, despite challenges from the school district. For about a decade, the hospital donated $17,000 to the borough each year in exchange for use of the borough police and road maintenance.However those donations stopped in 2012. Keerans sent the hospital a letter earlier this year outlining the services that the borough has provided, and asked them to resume the annual donations. He said with the borough's revenue problems, it would be silly not to ask the hospital for a donation.Keerans outlined several services that the borough provides for the hospital. The borough's police force handles all calls at the Miners emergency room. He said they also maintain Manila Grove Hill, the main access to the hospital, and agreed to waive parking enforcement for employees during a recent construction project."The police spend a lot of time there with unruly patients," he said. "We also let them park behind the hospital."He said that borough officials often sign off on Miners' grant applications as well - including a recent $1 million grant application.The hospital's tax-exempt status has long been disputed by the three entities that collect property tax in Coaldale - Panther Valley School District, Schuylkill County, and the borough itself.In 2000, Panther Valley School District filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to remove the hospital's tax-exempt status.The first challenge came in 1992, just after 21st Century Health Care of Philadelphia took over the hospital from the state. At that time, according to published reports, Panther Valley school district's business manager estimated that the hospital should be on the hook for at least $300,000 in property taxes each year.St. Luke's officials did not comment on the donation when asked. The hospital issued a statement pointing out the charitable impact they have on the surrounding community.Earlier this year St. Luke's launched an "Adopt-A-School" program with Panther Valley, which places a health professional in the Panther Valley school district to coordinate programs in Coaldale and the rest of the district.Keerans also praised St. Luke's for the impact it has on the community, particularly through employment of local residents, and the contribution to the borough's earned income tax base."They provide a good number of well-paying jobs," he said. "A lot of our residents work there."