A new Allen County Hospital will be built north of Iola on virgin farmland that abuts U.S. 169 and sits about 2 miles north of U.S. 54.
Hospital trustees selected the 20-acre rural site over a 17-acre parcel at the eastern entrance to Iola.
Trustees discussed the issue for about 30 minutes in executive session at their meeting Tuesday night before they prepared for a vote.
Patti Boyd of Moran was the only trustee to say anything publicly about her feelings before the vote was called.
“I don’t believe it’s the best place for a new hospital,” she said. “The difference in cost between the two sites is not so great. I don’t see this as an investment in Iola, or in the county.
“I believe we could work harder to pursue a more aggressive agenda to make the East Street site happen in a timely fashion.”
When the vote was called, Boyd’s vote was the lone negative.
Trustees Harry Lee, Debbie Roe, Sean McReynolds, Jay Kretzmeier, Karen Gilpin and Tom Miller all voted in favor of the remote location.
THE OVERALL difference in price between the two sites is about $315,000 for the $30 million project, according to Phil Schultze, an engineer with Murray Construction.
That 1 percent difference, however, is figured in dramatically different ways.
Though the farmland is considerably cheaper, costs to extend utilities is significantly more expensive than the in-town location. Schultze estimated costs to procure electric, water, gas and sewer services north of town and improve the road and site would amount to more than $800,000.
The land, owned by Iolan Sally Huskey, would sell for $100,000. Construction of a storage building would require another $70,000.
For the East Street site, land alone would cost an estimated $625,000. Cleaning its “dirty” soil from previous smelters would cost another $300,000. A new cost would be the recommendation to build a foundation 20 feet deep because of unknown stability of the soil, Schultze said, adding another $317,000 to the project.
In regards to the timetable of the construction project, the process to remediate the polluted soil on East Street could, at best, be completed by fall.
Any delays in the cumbersome project would put the start date into spring of 2012.
Trustees clearly did not have the stomach for such risk.
Fearing that the six-month difference could mean an increase in interest rates and the cost of borrowing money if the economy rebounds, the clear majority of trustees preferred the path of more immediate construction.
In trustee reports, Debbie Roe relayed a conversation she had had with Steve Strickler, owner of Strickler Dairy situated to the south of the new site. If trustees settled on the rural site, Strickler recommended the hospital be situated “as far west” as possible on the site to avoid the prevailing southeast winds that carry the “bouquet” of the dairy.
Moving the hospital to the west, however, conflicts with the architect’s desire to position the hospital on the knoll in the east corner of the lot, making it easily visible from motorists on the highway.
Now that the site is settled, architects and engineers will move quickly to tailor the hospital to its new site. They talked in length about the fact that a storm shelter had not been included in the preliminary plans and the cost of adding it.
Trustees meet each Tuesday evening at 7 o’clock in the basement meeting room of the hospital. The meetings are open to the public.
They also appreciate input from the community. Their e-mails are: Debbie Roe, debbie.roe@monarchcement.com; Harry Lee, harry.lee@laharpetel.com; Sean McReynolds, 2thfixr@sbcglobal.net; Patti Boyd, mikboy@vogent.net; Jay Kretzmeier, jay@kmspa.kscoxmail.com, Karen Gilpin, jkgilpin@cox.net, and Tom Miller, tmiller23@cox.net.
