Voters will decide Nov. 2 whether to increase a countywide sales tax by 1⁄4 of a cent to go toward a new Allen County Hospital.
Members of the Allen County Healthcare Committee address questions about the issue.
Q: Much has been made of the new hospital being all on one level, will part of it be reinforced to serve as a storm shelter for patients?
A: Living in a part of the Midwest called “tornado alley” by meteorologists, people of Allen County are used to storm warnings and even tornado watches and tornado warnings. Most of the present Allen County Hospital is made out of reinforced concrete, and as it does have an extensive basement, it has ample room for patients and staff to take shelter during a storm. Has the risk of storms and providing shelter for patients been included in the building design of the new hospital?
Single story structures, unless they are reinforced structures, don’t offer the same protection. When asked, the consulting engineers who drafted the Allen County Hospital Master Plan indicated that an area for use by patients during storms had not been specified in the proposal, but certainly could and probably should be added in the final plans.
They indicated that in many one-story hospital designs the radiology de-partment would be de-signed and equipped to serve as a patient storm shelter since the walls there have more reinforcement and material in them anyway, due to the x-ray radiation. The radiology department in the proposed re-placement hospital is a large space and easily could be adapted to serve as a shelter, too.
In the proposal there is a contingency reserve of 5 percent of the construction cost that could provide ample funds for that en-hancement.
Finally, it should be pointed out that any storm shelter design enhancements only would be intended for patients and staff and not for the public. There are other designated storm shelters in the City of Iola that are available to the public.
Yes! Allen County Healthcare
