Board approves Calais hospital’s request New facility site met with dispute

CALAIS – The city planning board approved another hurdle in Calais Regional Hospital’s effort to build a new facility that could cost up to $20 million.

At a public hearing Tuesday night, the board approved the hospital’s site plan request over minimum opposition.

After about an hour of discussion, the board approved the plan with conditions that included an increased buffer zone and restrictions on the use of Manning Street.

The 7-acre parcel is near the current building on Franklin Street.

The entrance to and exit from the 60,000-square-foot facility would be on South Street.

An emergency entrance is planned for Manning Street, said Ray Davis, the hospital’s executive director. It would be closed to the public.

The new building would be about 15 percent smaller than the current hospital.

Calais resident Billy DelMonaco, who said he owns property that borders the new site and is part owner of an area real estate agency requested the additional “buffer zone” around the new hospital. Although the site plan calls for trees to serve as a buffer, DelMonaco said, he would like to see even more.

Neighbor Joe Moses said he would prefer a fence.

Davis took notes.

Planning board member David Mitchell, who chaired the meeting, then read an unsigned letter that claimed not everyone connected with the hospital favored building on the new site.

“Some of us are hospital trustees with an obligation to support the mission statement to ‘Have the best small hospital in Maine.’ Building it on this site does not accomplish that mission,” the letter went on to say.

Among the issues raised in the letter Mitchell read were concerns about nearby wetlands and the concentration of ledge and springs.

The trustees recommended the hospital build on land it owns next to South Street.

Norm Dineen, who has been project manager on a number of city projects, said people had contacted him about their concerns.

“That is a very, very poor site,” he said. In a letter he presented to the board, he said the site could harm residential property values and lead to an increase in traffic and noise.

Dineen, who serves on the hospital’s building committee, said at first he was enthusiastic about the project, but not now.

“I was really excited about this site, but the more I learned about it, my enthusiasm died.” He said he had shown the project to engineers who said it was not a good site. He forecast there would be a serious water problem in the area. “You are going to have a flood there,” he said.

Brand Livingstone, chairman of the hospital’s building and grounds committee, disagreed.

He said the committee supported the hiring of Littlejohn Engineering Associates of Nashville, Tenn. “These people are responsible engineers who have decided and confirmed that this is a good location and a good place to build,” he said.

The hospital is a nonprofit and was incorporated in 1938, with a service area that stretches north to Topsfield, west to Wesley and south to Eastport. It serves a population of about 14,000 people.

The hospital is one of the city’s largest private employers, with about 250 full- and part-time and per diem workers.

The main building was built in 1954, with the newest portion added in 1978.

Davis said after Tuesday’s hearing that it would be premature to forecast when the hospital might break ground. He said the hospital still faced state licensing requirements.