Hospital presents preliminary plans for new addition

Three-story building will add 72,000 square feet to Heywood

By Owen Boss

GARDNER — The Development Review Board discussed preliminary plans for a 72,000-square-foot addition to Heywood Hospital Wednesday and took the first step toward the hospital’s goal of breaking ground on the project in January. Although board members voiced several concerns with the plans, including the location of retention basins for stormwater run-off, the preservation of the current sewer system, parking, blasting, snow removal, underground storage tanks and how the hospital would function during construction, they said they were pleased with the project as a whole. 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 provide the hospital with a new 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 addition will include 25 private rooms which, according to Mr. Moen, will revolutionize the way the hospital can care for its patients. “This is an exciting project for us,” said Mr. Moen. “It will more than double the size of our emergency room, which is badly needed.” Before plans for the project could be presented to the committee, the hospital had to first file a “determination of need” request to the state, which Mr. Moen said was recently approved. “Our financing is set and we are hopefully going to finalize that in the next 30 days or so, the sooner the better,” said Mr. Moen. “I think we will be able to do some good things for the hospital and good things for the city at the same time.” The board’s primary concern with the plans regarded the direction water will flow out of the parking lot, which City Engineer Robert Hankinson said needed to be addressed before the plans were finalized. “I would like to see the plans for stormwater management,” said Mr. Hankinson. “You should have calculations all the way to the retention pond, because where you are putting the roof I know you can argue that it will be the same amount of water, but I can tell you that the concentration will be a lot different.” However, a representative for the engineering company said the plans include a state of the art bio-retention basin, which will be located in the back of the parking lot. The basin will essentially be a 12-inch deep sand mix that excess stormwater will be funneled into. Regarding health concerns, Board of Health Director Bernie Sullivan said the proximity of the addition to the hospital’s boiler stack could cause exhaust to flow through the ventilation system, a problem project manager Michael Quinlan said had already been addressed. “We had an environmental consultant do a preliminary model that examined how the stack would impact the hospital,” said Mr. Quinlan. “In their first report it didn’t look like it would be an issue when based on the examination of the prevailing winds and the orientation of the buildings, and I would be happy to copy the report so you can see some (of) that information.” Overall, the success of the project hinges on communication between the city and architects, according to Robert Hubbard, director of planning and development. “You guys have a self-imposed, fairly tight schedule to get from where you are now to where you want to be in January, and the city will make every effort to get through the preliminary steps on our end,” said Mr. Hubbard. “But a lot of that depends on you responding to our requests for information and things like that.” While board members had several concerns with the preliminary plans, Mr. Hubbard said he didn’t see anything that could stall the project’s progression. “Judging from this outline, I haven’t heard anything and I don’t think anyone else has heard anything that would keep this project from moving forward,” said Mr. Hubbard. “You’ve heard the concerns of the board, and I think based on that we can move this to the definitive plan stage.” Board members noted that it will be a month after the next set of plans are submitted before another public forum can be held, and Mr. Moen said he was happy with the results of the first meeting. “This is going to be a large project,” said Mr. Moen. “Seventy-two thousand square feet is going to be a significant addition to our hospital, but it is something that will prepare us to take better care of our patients for the next hundred years.” oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 9/11/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 215)