Homer’s South Peninsula Hospital is seeking an additional $50,000 to fund further design of the Homer Medical Center, which they purchased last fall, and already allocated $150,000 to renovate.
SPH CEO Bob Letson previously stated that the purchase and renovation of the Center was integral to providing doctor’s adequate space to practice.
Letson: “This is very important for our local hospital, we have 22 active doctors on staff that live in Homer and we have absolutely no clinic that we own. The clinic’s that we’re using now we have to lease which is more expensive in the long run, and there’s no capability to expand them.”
South Peninsula Hospital had been leasing the space for $117,000 annually but finalized the Center’s purchase for $435,000 last September.
Originally the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly hired a contractor to design a 3,700 square foot addition to the Center for $150,000.
However, upon further planning by a steering committee, it was decided that a 5,700 square foot expansion will more effectively meet the hospital’s needs.
A memo from Borough Chief of Staff Paul Ostrander states that “Rather than constructing an expansion of 3,700 square feet now, followed by a future second expansion of 2,000 square feet, it is more cost effective to complete the entire expansion in one project.”
The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly will take public comment on an ordinance to appropriate $50,000 for the design of the additional 2,000 square foot expansion at their Tuesday meeting.
That meeting begins at 6:00 pm, Tuesday, May 17, in the Borough Assembly chambers.