Allen County Hospital trustees inched closer to settling on Oregon Road for a new hospital when they voted Tuesday night to approve up to $11,000 for new drawings of the hospital on the rural site.
Though several of the trustees said they remain open to other possible sites, it seems all efforts have been exhausted and that their window of time will soon force the issue to be decided once and for all.
Just two weeks ago, trustees shelved several months of work on a site bordering U.S. 54 in Iola, after reports from engineers revealed misgivings about the suitability of the site because of its poor soil.
A report this week gave a glowing report of the 25 acres of farmland owned by Sally Huskey, who has offered the land at $5,000 an acre.
Architect David Wright of Health Facilities Group said the site has a 20-foot rise, giving the hospital a “prominent appearance.”
“It looks real hopeful,” he said.
Phil Schultze, engineer for the project, agreed, saying various borings below topsoil reveal varying degrees of composition of shale, “which is soft enough to be removed.”
The shale will be mixed with equal parts of soil and clay to form a suitable medium, Schultze said, “which will add somewhat to the expense.”
Almost 10 feet down is a solid layer of shale, upon which the hospital will be built, eliminating the need for stone piers, as had been designed for the in-town site.
“It’s taken a lot of risk out of my mind,” he said.
Wright and Schultze asked trustees to give “further and fuller” investigation to annexing the land to the City of Iola and the securing of utilities. One mile of 8-inch sewer line will need to be laid to connect the hospital to existing lines. Water can be
supplied either through Rural Water District No. 5 or the City of Iola. Tom Miller, trustee, reported Rural Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative has said it will surrender its rights to the land in favor of city power.
If trustees want a groundbreaking by this fall, things have to fall in place quickly.
“We’re close to the edge of not being able to meet a fall deadline,” Wright said.
Acting on the vote of the trustees to fund additional drawings, Wright said he will begin immediately to draw a “mirror image” of the hospital as it was proposed in town, reversing not only the layout of the building but also its structural, mechanical and engineering needs. Wright estimated it would take two to three weeks for this work to be completed. From there, Schultze, the construction engineer, will have until mid-September to develop the design into a working plan. It’s his document from which he bases the project’s guaranteed maximum price and takes on full responsibility for its success.
Then there’s also the weather to factor in, Schultze said.
“We haven’t had a good winter for construction in the last several years,” Schultze said.
“It’s critical to be able to move dirt before it freezes,” he said.
With a Nov. 1 starting date, Schultze said he hoped to be able to have the area prepared enough to accommodate below-slab utilities and to have the building’s footings laid.
“We can erect steel through winter pretty easily,” he said.
BEFORE THE discussion pretty much settled on the Oregon Road site, one more site came up for review.
Karen Hartwig of Yates Center said she and her uncle, Joseph J. Patterson, owned 16.3 acres between Miller and Patterson roads on the west edge of Iola.
A strong selling point, Hartwig said, is an existing 7-inch sewer main that runs through the land. The land is between the old and the new Walmart buildings and directly behind the Kansas Department of Transportation and Orscheln buildings.
Trustees were cool to the site for two reasons. Its 500-foot depth was too narrow for their ideal plans; and its location is not highly visible to highway traffic for either advertising purposes or for easy access for emergency response vehicles.
Hartwig said appraisers had set $538,000 as the value of the land.
In other news, Joyce Heismeyer, chief executive officer of the hospital, talked about the direction the hospital should take in an increasingly competitive market. With the use of slides, Heismeyer illustrated the shrinking population of the hospital’s market and the need to “figure out what our niche will be” to effectively compete with area hospitals.
Heismeyer looked at the area’s demographics and discussed how the hospital can cater to specific needs.
Trustees will next meet in two weeks, July 26, in the basement of the hospital.
