Planning Board generally pleased with hospital plans

Addition to add 72,000 square feet of space

By Owen Boss

GARDNER — The Planning Board “generally approved” the review of site plans for a 72,000-square-foot addition to Heywood Hospital at a public forum Tuesday night and moved closer to the hospital’s goal of breaking ground on the project in January. The proposed plans call for the three-story addition to be built in the northern parking lot of the hospital in front of the current main entrance, a project that is expected to take approximately 20 months to complete. The plans include a first floor that will more than double the size of the hospital’s emergency room, and a second floor which will house a new modern intensive care unit that will provide cardiac telemetry and medical surgical care. The second floor of the addition will be made up of 25 private rooms for patients requiring individual care. Sandy Brock, an engineer for Nitsch Engineering and civil engineer working on the project, discussed changes made to the site plan following the original meeting when several concerns were voiced by members of the Development Review Board regarding parking and drainage. Ms. Brock said that although the addition calls for significant changes to the hospital parking lot and location of several patient drop-off points, the flow of traffic will remain, for the most part, unchanged. “As far as the general circulation around the hospital, that is going to be pretty much the same as it was before,” said Ms. Brock. “Cars entering the parking lot will still continue around the back and out a separate entrance.” Another concern that arose at an earlier meeting was the number of parking spaces available to patients at the hospital, which the implementation of the addition is expected to substantially increase. “They added 150 spaces in anticipation of the work at the hospital already and after we are done we are looking at a net loss of about 56 including those additional spaces,” said Ms. Brock. “So we are looking at basically an addition of 94 new spaces for patients.” Ms. Brock went on to discuss the drainage and proposed run-off from the addition, another aspect of the project that board members had been concerned with at earlier meetings. She said that both the new sewer and water lines running into the addition could be connected to those already flowing into and out of the hospital and minor changes would have to be made to limit run-off including the addition of several sand-lined catch basins. Speaking in favor of the project was James Mullen, vice president of patient services at the hospital, who said he transcended the divide between residents and hospital employees at the forum because he fit into both category. “I just wanted to say I am really excited about this project, this is a cutting-edge, state-of-the-art facility,” said Mr. Mullen. “This is going to present our patients with the opportunity to receive outstanding care.” Although the board members said they were generally happy with the plans they could not formally vote in favor of the site plan review or the granting of a special permit until the meeting November. “Dealing with these special permits can be a fairly convoluted process but we can give you a general approval and draft you up something for our next meeting,” said member Robert Hubbard. Following the decision, project Manager Michael Quinlan said he was happy with their decision. “They are going to draw up an affirmative decision draft so we can have it ready for the next meeting,” said Mr. Quinlan. “We are happy with how this is moving along.” oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 10/15/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 244)