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The Bristol Herald Courier
http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/news.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2007-11-29-0008.html
Johnson Memorial
Hospital to announce
plans to build a new hospital
Thursday, November 29, 2007
By Debra McCown
ABINGDON, Va. – Johnston Memorial Hospital will
build a new $100 million facility just outside the town limits, JMH officials
are expected to announce today.
The announcement is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Johnston Memorial Cancer
Center on Lee Highway, about
two miles outside of town.
A hospital spokeswoman would not comment Wednesday
about the announcement, but the new facility has been rumored for months to be
built beside the cancer center – and adjacent to what’s now the site of a
planned sports complex.
Hospital officials would not give a reason for
building the new hospital or specific plans in advance of today’s announcement.
A site map developed in conjunction with the
controversial sports complex project, which is a joint initiative between Washington County
and the town of Abingdon,
shows two small adjacent parcels reserved for Johnston Memorial – one for a possible
right-of-way and one for a land swap.
"It’s my understanding that the hospital has
bought all the property over to the point where it adjoins the property we’re
acquiring," said Abingdon Town Manager Greg Kelly. "[Developer] Jimmy
[Stewart] told me he sold it to the hospital much higher than he sold it to
us."
Kelly said what he’s heard – though he’s not sure
from where – is that the hospital paid upwards of $75,000 per acre for its land
near the cancer center, between U.S. Highway 11 and Interstate 81.
That amount could not be confirmed Wednesday.
Hospital spokeswoman Brook Lambert would not say
who will build the new hospital, but Stewart’s firm is building Johnston
Memorial’s new urgent care center, which is set to open in January on Russell Road.
Stewart did not return calls seeking comment on
Wednesday.
Lambert said Johnston Memorial has grown
tremendously in the century since it was established.
"It was originally just a small wooden
cabin," she said.
The first section of what is now Johnston Memorial
Hospital was built in
1919 – and it’s been expanded and renovated many times since, the spokeswoman
said.
During the last fiscal year, the hospital
discharged 5,600 patients and treated about 30,000 people in the emergency
room, Lambert said.
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