Engineers tried to prepare Allen County Hospital trustees Tuesday night for a report due next week that they fear will reveal a very unstable building site for the new hospital.
Numerous borings have revealed “a hodgepodge” of different fill materials and depths, said Steve Lewallen, the architect with Health Facilities Group.
The inconsistencies of the samples “defy our ability to easily analyze the site,” Lewallen said.
Phil Schultze, an engineer with Murray Construction, surmised that the area had been excavated for its shale and then filled “with uncontrolled materials, including wood, bricks, and whatever.”
“It’s much worse than we had anticipated,” he said.
Almost every boring yields a different result, Schultze said, even if only a foot apart. To add to their distress, water has been found only 1.5 feet below the surface in some areas that was not evident in tests earlier this year.
“There’s even some marsh areas,” Lewallen said.
The challenge for the builders is to secure firm footings on the squishy site.
“We want uniformity so the building settles at the same time,” Lewallen said. So far the most inconsistent findings have been dead center of the site — the likely spot for the new hospital.
THE FINDINGS, though still preliminary, likely mean additional costs to securing a firm footing for the hospital, Schultze said. He ventured “another $600,000.”
That amount would rob the future hospital of necessary equipment and space, said Joyce Heismeyer, chief executive officer of the hospital.
“We’re on a very tight budget as it is,” she said.
Although it clearly pained him, Chuck Wells, adviser to the project, ventured “that perhaps” county commissioners should be asked to increase the budget for the hospital by $1 million.
County commissioners have the authority to do so, said Alan Weber, county counselor. A 30-day period exists during which protests to the hike could be entered.
Trustees likely will be faced with the decision at their meeting next week.
THE NIGHT was not all doom and gloom.
In a report by BKD, a financial firm based in Kansas City, the hospital’s future revenues were projected to be very sound based on its past performances.
The report is valuable to lenders.
Even when taking a “very conservative” view, the hospital’s income is “above and beyond what a lender would expect,” a representative of the firm said. The report also assures trustees that they will be able to retire the debt in a comfortable fashion.
IN REGARDS to a possible Veterans Affairs clinic also locating at the U.S. 54 site, trustees were told that Allen County commissioners were most agreeable to the idea. A possible lease agreement was discussed. Currently HCA leases the land for the hospital from the county for $1 a year. Such a transaction allows the county to retain control over the site and its buildings.
Next week’s meeting will include discussion on the operating agreement with HCA and whether to retain it in an advisory capacity. Those discussions will be conducted in executive session and closed to the public.
