The Hasting City Council Monday approved an easement on a strip of city land requested by Spectrum Health Pennock Hospital where they will build a new $12 million surgery/endoscopy center and a license for the use of 75 of the 200 parking spaces in Fish Hatchery Park for its staff.
Liability questions and Michigan Department of Natural Resources approval will be satisfied as part of the agreement. City Manager Jeff Mansfield credited Spectrum Health and specifically Emily Green for her work in “capturing the concepts we talked about,” in the agreements.
Alan Kranzo, director of Real Estate and Facility Strategy at Spectrum, said the approvals, “will allow us to get started on the parking lot.” Spectrum will pay the city’s costs associated with the agreements, including attorney fees, he said.
Securing the easement of a 30-foot strip of city property at the site will help keep costs down, saving money he said. During early planning, it was discovered that the hospital’s west visitor’s parking lot encroached on city property. Spectrum wanted to make the space two lanes to allow families to drive around to the back of the new center and park.
Spectrum has agreed to resurface the entire parking lot, make a number of improvements to the asphalt, lighting and pathways and maintain it. They will also improve and extend a sidewalk to the hospital from the park and install a sidewalk along the drive from the parking lot to Green Street so pedestrians don’t share space with cars.
The new surgical center will include three operating rooms, 15 private patient rooms, five recovery bays and two endoscopy suites.
Also Monday, Hastings Cable Access Committee Chairman Randall Schaefer returned to the council with an amended request of the committee’s planned improvements he had asked for at the last council meeting.
The council approved his request for council room microphone replacement and studio room cleanup for this fiscal year. The committee has $25,500 available to pay for the two most urgent projects that will cost $20,119.18.
Schaefer was authorized to issue a purchase order for AVI to proceed with the work. Replacing the whiteboard with two television monitors will be in a future budget, “hopefully next year,” Schaefer said.
In other business, the council approved a YMCA request to use the sand volleyball courts at Tyden Park and near the Skate Park; Hope Network’s plan to close part of some streets for an Open House May 30; and for American Legion Post 45 to hold the annual Memorial Day Parade.
A public hearing was held on the necessity of setting a special assessment district in the downtown to pay for part of the upkeep of the city parking lots. Because of a timing issue with publication of the hearing, the council set another public hearing for May 13. They also set a public hearing for May 13 to hear public comment on the draft budget for 2019/2020.
A workshop is already scheduled for April 29 for council members to discuss the draft project plan for the Wastewater Treatment Plant with Dennis Benoit of HRC.
