Petersburg Medical Center symbolically broke ground at the construction site of its new hospital facility on December 8th.
As KFSK’s Shelby Herbert reports, even some of the project’s critics came out to witness the ceremony.
Dozens of people braved the rain and snow to see Petersburg Medical Center administrators break ground on the new hospital project. Site work actually began in November, and now a giant pit in the yawns in the muskeg.
It was cold and wet and the ground had turned to mud beneath people’s feet. But the attendees were still in good spirits.
PMC’s current facility is rapidly falling out of code. And some hospital employees are raring to start work in the new building.
Elise Kubo is one of them — she’s in charge of the hospital’s medications. She said she’s pleased that Bettisworth North, the company contracted to design the hospital, took input from PMC employees on the project.
“The space that we currently have does not work for everything that we needed to do,” said Kubo. “I have had quite a lot of back-and-forth with the architects about what the new space needs to look like and how it needs to function. And I am just so pleased that they are listening to the people who work there as they are making the design decisions.”
But not everyone is as happy as Kubo about the plans. Some in the community are worried about the new hospital’s flat roof. Petersburg gets about 110 inches of precipitation per year — and their concern is that big snow loads and seasonal freezing and thawing patterns could damage the brand new building.
Kate Incarnato is an architect with Bettisworth North. She said installing a pitched roof on the facility was too expensive, so they went with a more level roof. And, she says appearances are deceiving — the roof they’ve proposed isn’t completely flat.
“This roof on this building is not flat,” said Incarnato. “It is sloped. You can’t see it behind the parapet, but it is sloped, it has proper drainage. The membrane is very thick. There are a lot of concerns with a lot of our clients about flat roofs — they see a lot of flat roofs from 30 years ago failing, and the systems have come a very long way since then. So, we feel like the building’s roof is gonna last a long time.”
Others in the community are worried about how PMC is financing the project. PMC’s goal is to secure about $100 million for the new facility — all from grants.
To date, they’ve secured a total of $29 million for the project. PMC is currently requesting $37 million from the 2024 State Capital Budget to build the shell and core of the main hospital building. Then, they’ll have to secure an additional $30 million to complete the project.
Petersburg Borough Vice Mayor Donna Marsh has been critical of the plan from the get-go. She’s voted against several initiatives to make way for the project. But she still attended the ceremony, where she said she’s coming around to the idea — especially now that PMC has secured funding for its Workforce Education Resource Center, and has taken the steps to secure even more for its main building.
“I don’t know that it makes sense to dig my heels in and say ‘no,’ because here we are,” said Marsh. “So, yeah. I definitely can see myself turning around on this — just because we’ve got a lot of support financially.”
However, Marsh is still worried about what the future holds — especially the cost to maintain the facility down the line, as well as any unforeseen problems with construction.
“I know every new facility I know we’ve had, [there have been] a lot of glitches with new construction,” said Marsh. “I anticipate the same thing will be here.”
(Photo by Shelby Herbert/KFSK)
When the time came to pick up the shovels, PMC CEO Phil Hofstetter congratulated the community on pulling it together for what assembly members have dubbed “the biggest project in the history of Petersburg.”
“I expressly want to thank the borough for their commitment to the community on this project,” said Hofstetter. “It is the biggest project in the history of Petersburg, and we could not be here today without their support and collaboration.”
A mound of gravel sits at the opening of the pit. At the end of the ceremony, each hospital board member — and CEO Phil Hofstetter — grabbed a clean shovel to dig in and toss some gravel on the spot where the new facility is set to be built.
“Stand back!” Hospital Board Member Cindi Lagoudakis called out to spectators, as she flung a shovelful of gravel into the pit.
