Hospital Plan Peppered with Questions

By IAN FEIN

Neighbors last week aired concerns about plans for the new $42
million Martha's Vineyard Community Hospital, while other Island
residents asked pointed questions about the wisdom of rebuilding such a
critical facility on the vulnerable 13-acre property off Beach Road in
the Eastville section of Oak Bluffs.

The comments came during a public information session hosted by the
Martha's Vineyard Commission last Thursday at the Tisbury senior
center.

Vineyard Haven resident James H. K. Norton referred to a report
authored by a commission subcommittee that identified 15 alternative
hospital locations that are more central to the Island population and
less susceptible to threats posed by natural disasters and flooding. Two
of the alternative sites identified in the study are on Norton family
farmland.

"If I speak from any platform, it is from that of the common
good," said Mr. Norton, who cited a long association with the
hospital, dating back to a 1920s plaque featuring the names of ancestors
on both sides of his family. "The hospital ought to be an
institution - one of the few - that is of the entire Island.
And it ought to respond to what is best for the entire Island."

Roughly 60 people attended the meeting last week, about a dozen of
them seasonal residents. The meeting was originally scheduled as the
first formal public hearing on the project, but was changed to an
informal session because of scheduling conflicts. The MVC will review
the hospital project as a development of regional impact (DRI),

After a lengthy presentation by hospital officials and architects,
the commission accepted a half-hour of public comment. Nine residents
spoke, seven of them close neighbors to the hospital, and not one
outwardly in favor of building the new hospital in its current location.

Hospital officials were not allowed to respond to the comments, and
were told to withhold their answers for the first official hearing. The
public testimony was recorded on video, and will be entered into the
formal record once the hearing begins, likely this fall.

The delayed start to the MVC review could affect the project time
line proposed by hospital officials. But Tim Walsh, chief executive
officer at the hospital, said yesterday that he still hoped to obtain
all the necessary permits by Dec. 31, with construction to start soon
after. If approved by the commission, the hospital project also will
need permits from several town boards, including the Oak Bluffs
conservation commission, planning board and sewer commission.

Hospital leaders also still have more funds to secure. They are in
the final stretch of a $42 million capital campaign, the largest in the
history of the Vineyard, and announced earlier this month that they had
topped $36 million in private donations.

As described by officials last week, the project aims to renovate,
expand and replace the decrepit 1972 hospital with a state-of-the-art,
green-designed facility. The proposal would increase the total number of
hospital beds from 15 to 24, and would house all of the inpatient rooms
- as well as the surgery, imaging, outpatient services and the
emergency department - in a new 90,000-square-foot, two-story
addition.

The facade of the original 1929 cottage building would be
demolished, and the 1972 wing would be renovated to house physician and
hospital administration offices. The proposal calls for about 11,000
square feet of demolition between the two existing buildings.

Some neighbors on Thursday raised questions about the construction
work, which is slated to last as long as 30 months. Windemere Road
resident Victor Linn asked where the equipment would be stored, and how
hospital officials plan to mitigate the noise pollution.

"Some of us rent our property to others - who will be
cheek by jowl with the construction," Mr. Linn said. "Man,
that's going to be a lot of noise."

Windemere Road residents Bernard and Connie Adelstein also asked
questions about the plans. "I'm not opposed to living next
to hospital. In fact, we've lived with it for many years,"
Mr. Adelstein said. "But I do have some concerns."

Most of the issues raised on Thursday were related to traffic,
access and parking. More than one person said the existing parking
capacity of 260 spaces was insufficient, with cars frequently spilling
onto the bike path.

The size of the hospital property limits potential for additional
parking. The current design would add only 10 on-site parking spaces,
but incorporates preliminary plans for employee parking on a piece of
vacant land across Eastville avenue that could accommodate over 100
spaces. A number of residents suggested that the MVC will have to look
hard at the proposed lot, which would force pedestrians to cross a
heavily travelled road.

Concerns also focused on whether the hospital at its current site
could adequately serve the public during a natural disaster, such as a
major hurricane or particularly large storm. The hospital is in a flood
zone and stands only about 15 feet above sea level.

"If we do have an emergency - a very bad storm -
and ambulances can't come up that road, it doesn't sound
like there's an alternative," said Sylvia Thomas of
Edgartown, one of only a few non-neighbors to speak on Thursday.

Windemere Road resident Patrick King asked why, despite its
proximity, no one from the hospital has participated on the Lagoon Pond
drawbridge committee. Located a few hundred yards from the hospital and
one of only two ways to reach it, the drawbridge has suffered frequent
closures in recent months and is slated for a complicated, two-phase
replacement project in the coming decade.

Such long-term planning issues should be studied by independent
parties, Mr. King said. The commission and hospital have hired a group
from Woods Hole to carry out a risk assessment of the current site,
which should be completed within the next two months.

Mr. King said that 15 years ago he stood up during public hearings
on the Windemere Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Facility and cited an
independent analysis which suggested that it would go bankrupt within
two years.

Windemere, which shares space and services with the hospital, lost
money as soon as it opened in 1994, and two years later was forced to
declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy when it defaulted on an $8 million bond
that was used to build the home. The Windemere bankruptcy later led to a
Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the hospital, which righted itself in 1998
after an emergency board of trustees stepped in to turn around the
crisis.

"I was painted as a black sheep, and people said my comments
were skewed," Mr. King said last week. "Well, my comments
were the only ones that came true."