What some term as a “no-brainer” has become a brain-teaser for Allen County Hospital trustees regarding what would be the best site for a new hospital.
And time, more than money, may be the deciding factor.
Two options exist: Both present strong positives and negatives.
The newest site is at the intersection of Oregon Road and U.S. 169.
Positives for the site:
* 20 acres are readily available for $100,000.
* The hospital would be at a higher elevation and be visible to highway motorists.
* Architects and engineers would have flexibility with the hospital’s design because it would be built on virgin farmland with nary a neighbor or any other kind of obstacle in sight.
* Building there might lead to other development. Some envision a gas station, hotel and restaurant setting up shop near the new hospital.
* Both Heartland Rural Electric and Rural Water District No. 5 have said they would connect utilities to the new site at no charge, if it were to remain a county property.
Possible disadvantages to Oregon Road:
* The land is currently in the county and thus rural, not city, services provide gas, water and electricity. Currently Kansas Gas Service, Rural Water District No. 5, and Heartland Rural Electric, provide those utilities to customers in the area. If the city were to annex the land, it would need to purchase the territorial rights from the utitlity providers, compensating them for the loss of potential business. As of Wednesday, that’s an unknown amount, according to Judy Brigham, city administrator. “Annexation doesn’t grant the right to provide the services,” she said.
But annexation would be part of the deal, Brigham said, if the city were to obligate $350,000 in sales tax revenue to the new hospital.
* The cost of bringing city services to the site is an unknown. The most recent figure is $510,000, according to Phil Schultze of Murray Company, the construction management firm overseeing the project. That doesn’t include the cost of a lift station for sewer service.
* Brigham said maintenance of Oregon Road also would become a city responsibility.
* Concerns about the air quality from Strickler Dairy remain for some trustees. Patti Boyd, a hospital trustee, wondered if an air analysis could be done to see how frequently a malodorous breeze blows in the direction of the new hospital site.
Iolan Bob Hawk, a former meteorologist, studied the wind direction of the site. A graphic presented at Tuesday night’s hospital board meeting showed prevailing winds come from the southeast.
* Whether a turning lane off of Highway 169 would be necessary for northbound traffic needs to be decided. The Kansas Department of Transportation will likely require a study of the traffic at the intersection, said Chuck Wells, an adviser to trustees.
If deemed necessary, the cost would be significant, said Schultze. “Upwards of $100,000.”
Total costs: $510,000-$610,000, perhaps more depending on negotiations with rural utility providers.
The site trustees first approached was on East Street between Citizens Bank and The Family Physicians.
Its positives include:
* Easy accessibility to pedestrians and motorists alike.
* Reclamation of a derelict site at the entrance to Iola.
* Building there might lead to further development in the area as proven over the past 10 years.
* Good visibility from both Highway 54 and Highway 169.
* Ready accessibility to city utilities.
Possible disadvantages to an East Street location:
* Not all landowners have agreed to sell their properties forcing condemnation procedures against at least one property owner, for certain.
* The cost of the land, if all came on board, would be $620,000. If eminent domain were required, that number could be either higher or lower, depending on how the court decides.
* The land is contaminated primarily with lead on the southern portion. Residue from a former foundry are in the soil north of Monroe Street. County crews could move the soil if they have 40 hours worth HAZMAT training, said Rick Bean, a geologist with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, who met with several trustees and city officials Wednesday morning.
* Six feet of new dirt would need to be purchased to go under the 60,000-square-foot building. The cost estimated for the soil is $300,000.
* Purchase of land, on either site, would not be reimbursed by Medicare.
* Jumping through all the hoops to comply with KDHE soil regulations could cost the project valuable time. An “aggressive” schedule gets a groundbreaking at Oct. 1, said Schultze. A “conservative” approach, delays the start of construction to February 2012. Construction costs are expected to rise in 2012.
* Two of the landowners refused to allow KDHE inspectors test the soil on their sites. If the East Street site is selected, that sets the process back a good three months for those parcels.
Total cost: $920,000, plus or minus condemnation costs.
AT THE CONCLUSION of Tuesday night’s meeting, the negatives appeared to outweigh the positives of the downtown location.
Each of the seven trustees said they had received “overwhelming” responses in favor of the site north of town.
Joyce Heismeyer, chief executive officer of the hospital, said “it’s a mixed bag” among hospital employees’ preference of the two sites.
During an executive session Tuesday night trustees discussed three other parcels of land that have come forth recently. Harry Lee, chairman of the trustees, said they held “no enthusiasm,” for the parcels.
Wednesday’s meeting about the environmental study of the land on East Street was more positive than expected.
The site “is no different than all the others along this stretch,” said Bean, who heads the Brownfield Program of KDHE’s remediation section.
“In Iola, numerous buildings sit on top of smelter waste,” he said, citing Citizens Bank, The Family Physicians, Sterling Six Cinemas, Super 8 Motel and JumpStart Travel Center.
The study showed that 80 percent of the three parcels along East Street was contaminated with high concentrations of lead from smelters that processed ore from about 1900 to 1925. Other metals of lesser concentrations included cadmium, arsenic, zinc and chromium. The heaviest concentrations of lead were found on the northern sections south of Monroe Street.
North of Monroe, about 25 percent of the land contained “considerably smaller” concentrations of lead in the sand used in the former foundry, but still high enough to require remediation.
The easiest way to treat the soil is to “cap it” with a parking lot, said Bean.
Schlutze said plans were to excavate three feet of the contaminated soil in the hospital’s footprint and move that out to where parking lots would be. The “dirty” soil would be replaced by six feet of “clean” dirt and the hospital placed on top of that. This allows a “clean” underside to the hospital through which plumbing could be installed.
MUCH OF the cost of the remediation study has already been paid for, Bean said. A federal grant administered by the state paid for the $30,000 soil testing. From here, a $5,000 application fee would be required to participate in the Volunteer Clean-up Program necessary to proceed with turning the “brown” land into an environmentally safe site.
The aim of the Brownfields Program is to “take contaminated properties and find ways to make them good,” Bean said.
“Communities today tend to migrate to green fields instead of dealing with their blighted sites,” he said. “We try to figure ways to get inner parts of a city re-developed.”
While Tom Miller, a trustee on the hospital board, appreciated that goal, he said he couldn’t have that be the reason he favors the East Street location for a new hospital.
“Our charge is not to clean up the city,” he said.
Trustees have given themselves until Tuesday to decide between the two sites.
“We have to think about what’s best not only for now, but what’s best for the next 50 years,” said Lee.
TRUSTEES said they value input from the public. They’re e-mails are: Debbie Roe, debbie.roe@monarchcement.com; Harry Lee, harry.lee@laharpetel.com; Sean McReynolds, 2thfixr@sbcglobal.net; Patti Boyd, mikboy@vogent.net; Jay Kretzmeier, jay@kmspa.kscoxmail.com, Karen Gilpin, jkgilpin@cox.net, and Tom Miller, tmiller23@cox.net.
