Hospital's Building Proposal Draws Concern, Support at Final
Two MVC Hearings

By IAN FEIN

An offsite parking lot emerged this week as a critical sticking
point in the continuing Martha's Vineyard Commission review of the
proposed Martha's Vineyard Hospital renovation and expansion
project. Questions about the parking lot reflected longstanding concerns
among some commission members that the existing 13-acre hospital
location in the Eastville section of Oak Bluffs may not be appropriate
or adequate for further expansion.

Everyone seemed to agree during the two public hearing sessions this
week that the existing site - which lies within a historic
residential neighborhood and is surrounded on three sides by water
- is not an ideal location for an emergency health care facility.
But though hospital officials said that in a perfect world they would
move to a more central spot on the Island, they maintained that such an
option was impossible for financial reasons.

The commission is reviewing the proposed $42 million hospital
project as a development of regional impact (DRI).

"Some people want to present this as a question of whether
we're going to build a new building here or somewhere else,"
hospital chief executive officer Timothy Walsh told the commission last
night. "But really it's a question of whether we build a new
hospital here, or stay in the existing building. Because of the dollars
it would take, I can tell you we're not going to another site. Not
for a long, long time."

After a five-hour opening meeting last Thursday, the commission held
two more public hearing sessions on the hospital project this week. The
meetings - which were held in the Katharine Cornell Theater in
Vineyard Haven and Old Whaling Church in Edgartown - lasted a
total of seven hours spread out over the last two nights.

The commission will accept written comments on the hospital project
until 5 p.m. Thursday, and will hold what is expected to be the final
regulatory session later that evening for the limited purpose of
examining the written record. After the public hearing is officially
closed, the commission is scheduled to make a final permitting decision
on the project in early December.

If approved by the commission, the hospital project will also need
permits from a variety of Oak Bluffs town boards. Hospital officials are
hoping to break ground on the project in March, with construction
expected to last roughly two and a half years.

The two sessions this week marked the only opportunity for Island
residents to speak formally during the regulatory process of the
commission. Public comments included a variety of people both in favor
and opposed to the project on the existing hospital site.

Former Edgartown selectman and longtime hospital administrator Fred
B. (Ted) Morgan Jr. on Wednesday shared memories from his time on the
hospital building committee when it planned for the current 1972
facility which is now in dire disrepair. Mr. Morgan said the building
committee went against his wishes and pursued a Cape Cod-style hospital,
instead of a design that would have proved more lasting.

"This hospital has been a nightmare from a maintenance
standpoint and functionally a very inefficient hospital," Mr.
Morgan said. "The patients and Island people who work in hospital
deserve a state-of-the-art modern medical facility on this Island that
is going to last for years."

Former Martha's Vineyard Commission chairman Richard Toole of
Oak Bluffs - who just this week earned reelection to the regional
planning agency, which he will rejoin in January - argued
forcefully that the time is right for the hospital to move to another
location. He said he knows of many people who agree, but are reluctant
to speak out against the hospital plan "because it is sort of like
being against motherhood and apple pie."

"A new site might cost more initially, but would probably be
more cost-efficient over the long run," Mr. Toole said on
Wednesday. "[Financial] contributors to the hospital might be more
willing to contribute more money if they felt their money was supporting
a more sustainable and appropriate project."

A number of hospital neighbors voiced concerns with the expansion
project, and complained that hospital leaders have treated them with
indifference during the planning process. In particular, a few neighbors
sounded off on the 100-space employee parking lot proposed for the
opposite side of Eastville Avenue.

The idea for the lot arose late this summer, when hospital officials
determined that the existing site could not contain all of the necessary
parking. If approved, the offsite parking lot would raise overall
hospital parking to 370 spaces, up from the current 260.

The Oak Bluffs historical commission delivered a letter to the
Martha's Vineyard Commission yesterday expressing its concerns
with the parking lot plan and requested a joint meeting with hospital
leaders and the commission. Historical commission member David Wilson
said last night that he is worried that the parking lot will further
encroach upon the Eastville residential neighborhood, which is one of
the oldest sections of Oak Bluffs and still has a number of important
historic homes. Hospital officials acknowledged this week that the
proposed parking lot is currently zoned for residential use, and may
need to be reclassified in order to allow for the parking.

David Gross, whose mother-in-law Anne Gordon, 84, lives in a
historic home abutting the proposed lot, said the offsite parking plan
was yet another sign that the hospital has outgrown its existing 13-acre
site and should move to a larger and more suitable location elsewhere on
the Island.

"There's an old railroad saying that when you're
on the wrong track, every stop is the wrong stop," Mr. Gross said
on Wednesday. "[By staying at the existing location,] the hospital
is on the wrong track."

West Tisbury resident Nancy Dole raised additional questions about
the offsite parking plan when she suggested that the proposed site ended
up in the control of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health
through the efforts of the late Dr. Milton Mazer, a well-known West
Tisbury psychiatrist and founder of Martha's Vineyard Community
Services, who envisioned the property as a possible residence for mental
health patients in recovery.

Hospital officials this week did not answer questions about
ownership and control of the parking lot site, or whether they had an
explicit agreement from the state mental health department to use it for
parking. They also said they did not have a secondary parking plan in
case the lot was not allowed.

In closing remarks last night, hospital board of trustees vice
chairman Timothy Sweet referred to the parking concerns as the only real
issue that remained before the commission. He urged commission members
not dwell on the minor minutiae of the project.

"We can't keep talking about perfect, because
we're not going to get there," said a visibly irritated Mr.
Sweet. "If there's one thing I've seen here these last
two weeks, it's that there seems to be a pension for making
perfect the enemy of great. We don't have perfect here, and we
never will, but we do have a great project."

He acknowledged that the existing hospital site is smaller than
desired, but he reiterated once again that financial realities will keep
the facility at its current location.

"This is all the money we have, and I don't think
there's any more out there. We've raised every penny in
donations, and I don't think you're ever going to see this
moment again in the history of Martha's Vineyard," Mr. Sweet
said. "You can't let this pass. If we don't get this
hospital up soon, we're going to start going backwards. This is
too important to miss - way too important."