The borough may soon give the final go-ahead for Southeast Regional Health Consortium’s new Jones Point hospital.
Permitting for the facility needs just final approval from borough manager Alekka Fullerton, who said she expects to release her final decision on the permit in the next two weeks.
SEARHC was granted a permit for site development work in September last year.
Once built, the hospital will replace SEARHC’s existing clinic in town, as well as behavioral health services, dental care and physical therapy, which are currently housed at SEARHC’s Second Avenue facility. According to the plans for the new hospital, it will also add a 24-hour emergency department and a long-term care unit.
The project also includes an initial four duplexes at the site for employee housing, and potentially up to seven duplexes in the future, SEARHC director of strategy Litia Garrison told the borough assembly earlier this year.
The borough administration permitted the project through a new planned unit development process. That put preliminary hospital plans in front of the planning commission in January, which the planning commission voted unanimously to approve.
With that approval, the process is now in the hands of borough staff, with the borough manager required to put the permit back in front of the planning commission only if it’s deemed to have had significant changes since initial approval.
A manager’s memo from June 24 stated that the only changes to SEARHC’s facility plans were reductions in building and parking lot square footage, which Fullerton deemed minor enough to not go back in front of the planning commission.
Contractor Dawson Construction has already begun advertising locally for a range of positions on the project.