Petersburg Medical Center has informally secured about a third of the funds they need to build a new hospital.
The existing hospital is rapidly falling out of code, and repairing it would cost up to $110 million — which would come out of the Borough’s pocket. It would cost about $85 million to build a whole new facility. The Hospital Board plans to collect that amount from state and federal grants, which would arrive in several phases.
At the Hospital Board meeting on September 28th, PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter announced that he got verbal confirmation from Governor Dunleavy’s office that the hospital would receive an Alaska State Treasury grant amounting to $20 million, adding to the $8 million it has already secured for the project. Hofstetter said this first large wave of funding is an important milestone.
“That means that we can kind of move forward with some work building and in planning, and designing for [the hospital],” said Hofstetter. “And that’s very, very exciting.”
But they still have about $57 million further to go. Marlene Cushing is the Hospital Board secretary. She says PMC can’t afford to take out a loan to build the new facility. If they can’t bring in all the grants — the board will have to come up with a new plan.
“I sure hope it comes through,” said Cushing. “If it doesn’t, we’re gonna have to go back to square one and say: ‘Okay, what are we gonna do to get ourselves through the next ten, 15, 20 years?”
However, in the near future, Hofstetter said he plans to celebrate the first wave of grant funding with more open house events. PMC hosted one such event this spring to prepare the public for the hospital project. They flew in architects from Bettisworth North to share their drafts for the new building, collect feedback, and answer questions.
Hofstetter estimated that he’ll be ready to organize another informational event closer to the end of the month.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that PMC received an $8 million grant through the 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act.
