While that could solve one obstacle to getting an expansion project under way, budget and design problems could continue to plague the expansion, warned outgoing borough assembly member Chris Moss of Homer.
The solution, if approved by the Homer City Council and Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, would become an exception to city zoning laws and would help push along a $17 million expansion project that has also run over budget.
The hospital is owned by the borough but sits mostly on city land. Disagreements between the two over who should own the land had led Borough Mayor Dale Bagley to threaten to cancel the expansion project unless the city deeded the land to the borough.
Homer City Council members have been reluctant to forfeit the property. Without the city’s interest in the land, some fear the borough could just move the hospital outside of the city. Nevertheless, they introduced an ordinance last week that would extend the lease until 2060.
Bagley said that while the solution is not exactly what he had hoped for, he is willing to accept the city zoning laws.
The Homer City Council spent hours drafting the ordinance, said council member Doug Stark.
“There were different views on the council. But we came up with a solution that is acceptable to the borough and the council,” he said.
A similar ordinance was recently introduced before the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly, Bagley said.
In 2003, voters approved a bond for the $17 million expansion project. Since the project was first proposed, however, the price tag for the design is up to $19 million, due mostly to rising construction costs.
The borough’s capital projects staff has been working for a year with the architects and hospital administration to shrink the project’s budget.
Representatives from RIM already presented several options ranging from leaving out a new patient wing to building the “shell” for a new wing but not completing any of the interior work.
Still, Bagley criticized the hospital administration with pushing to expand the project even though it was over budget.
The project design team, made up of hospital and borough officials and the architectural team, has reached a critical point — two years after voters approved the project, it is not even close to happening, said Moss.
“I’m really concerned that there’s a deal where we’re going to spend $17 million and we’ll have to spend another $3 million to finish it,” Moss said.
Matt Vogel, the lead architect for the project with the Anchorage-based RIM Architects, said the borough has the lead, and the architects are awaiting direction from borough staff.
“They direct us on what to do,” including how and when to proceed on the project, said Vogel.
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