Council, medical center continue talks

MONTEREY — Dr. D. Bradley Drawbaugh, executive director of Highland Medical Center, approached the Monterey town council last Thursday with the third in a series of proposals for the town's parking lot.

Two months ago he asked council to consider leasing, selling or donating the town's gravel parking lot in Carver Meadow to HMC for developing as a shared town/HMC parking lot. HMC would pay for the improvements..

The second proposal was to build a pharmacy on the town's property, in addition to the parking lot. Mayor Janice Warner suggested the town could give the entire Carver Meadow to HMC for that purpose.

The third proposal is to put the parking lot on the eastern end of Carver Meadow and attach the pharmacy to the clinic building on HMC property.

The HMC board met last month to consider Phase I of its expansion project, Drawbaugh explained.

Phase II, the long-term care facility, was not considered because it would be at least two years before it could be built. Phase I doubles the size of the existing clinic from 5,000 to 10,000 square feet. Plans call for expanding the dental operatories, a lighted and heated heliport, and a pharmacy addition.

Engineer Jonathan Garber of Lineage Architects said the west addition would contain the acute offerings from a single room to three rooms to grow into one or two beds for overnight.

Lineage Architects was contracted by HMC to do design work for the project, which includes two waiting rooms, one for patients who are not sick and another for patients who are. The training room, surge, and additional administrative space would be downstairs. The north addition expands the dental space and adds a pharmacy. A drive-through window would abut the north end of the building. The helipad would be located to the west of the building. Overhead utility lines would be buried for safety.

The parking lot would have two points of access. Rain gardens would be included in the site design to contain storm-water runoff. "The bulk of the building, except for the parking lot, would all be on HMC property," he added. "The board gave approval to move forward with financing through Virginia Capital, an economic development bank."

HMC is looking for space for a dental lab, he said. "If the town would be willing to gift the entire Carver Meadow, it would be put to good use," Drawbaugh said.

"We want to be sensitive to what is going on, functional but aesthetically pleasing," said Garber.

Councilman Francis Fenn suggested HMC bulldoze the house it owns to the south of its building and put its expansion there. "The land would be more valuable bulldozed down," he said.

Drawbaugh noted the HMC dentist was renting the house.

"Talking about Carver Meadow, you are fencing yourself in," Fenn continued. "There is no place available for you to go."

Fenn suggested HMC could buy land across U.S. 220 for expansion. He added that the town has plans to build an office on the east end of Carver Meadow.

Garber said a 20,000 square foot structure could be built on the west end of Carver Meadow if the town wanted office space.

Fenn insisted that Carver Meadow along U.S. 220 was the best location for a town office. He asserted the town wouldn't donate all of Carver Meadow to HMC.

"We need to sit down and come to some consensus what we as a council would be willing to give and see what we can work out nuts and bolts," said Warner. "Then we need to have a public hearing to see if we can do that."

"There is no hurry about this thing," Fenn countered. "It's all premature."

Drawbaugh said HMC had been accepted for a loan from the Virginia Community Capital bank, an economic development lender. "If this drags out it could jeopardize our funding," said Drawbaugh. "We'll miss our opportunity." Drawbaugh said he wanted to correct the impression HMC was "lollygagging."

"We are working within a timeframe we have to adhere to," he said.

"HMC has been lollygagging some time on the pharmacy," said Fenn. "Three months ago we talked to you about where you were going to put the pharmacy."

"Respectfully, we have had a lot of interest," Drawbaugh responded. "We were counting on a federal grant. It didn't come through. Even so, the HMC board is moving forward with the pharmacy, keeping faith with the community to provide a pharmacy. Despite obstacles, we have continued to surmount those obstacles and make progress. We have kept our focus. It is our intention to keep our promise to deliver a pharmacy. We are borrowing money to build the pharmacy.

"The 20-bed (long-term care) unit is under Phase II," he continued. "It's not related to the pharmacy."

He explained that much work remained to be done before the long-term care facility could be built. First, the state has to do a feasibility study. That could be completed as early as January. Then HMC would have to submit an application to the state to get permission to build the facility.

Meanwhile, the parking lot and pharmacy is something HMC is ready to do now.

Garber explained the parking lot runoff would include a larger pipe than needed for the HMC end of Carver Meadow so that when the town develops the other end it wouldn't have to dig up the pipe. The only thing the town would need to do is enlarge the pond HMC will build for its parking lot, he said.

"If you've done site work on that land, it is premature," said Fenn. "The council did not ask you to come. You (Warner) were the one that instigated the idea of their having the whole tract of land. When Drawbaugh came here, it was about parking lot sharing. For some reason you go out and come back in and want to give it all away."

"We talked about it," said Warner.

"Not we, you," Fenn retorted. "Council did not authorize you to (go to counsel or anybody) and do that."

Warner suggested the next step would be to set up a meeting with the HMC board. Warner later arranged a work session with the HMC board for 7 p.m. tonight, Thursday, Nov. 12 at the Highland County modular conference center in Monterey.