MOUNT VERNON – A crowd of local leaders and Knox Community Hospital employees watched on Wednesday afternoon as the final beam was hoisted onto the steel framework of the new Family Care Center.
It contained the signatures of doctors, nurses, construction workers, project donors and hospital board members. The likes of Jen Odenweller and Bob Boss, two of the project’s initial investors, and Ted Schnormeier, who first imagined the project alongside his wife, Ann, recorded their names on the precious metal.
And as it was lifted into the brisk winter sky, the American flag placed at the center of the beam flapped in the wind.
It was a symbolic moment in the facility’s construction – a sign that, indeed, this dream would soon become a reality.
“I think it’s important – particularly for projects like this, that involve so many community partners, individuals and organizations – to celebrate these milestones,” said Jeffrey Scott, director of marketing and development at KCH.
“There are so many people that are making this possible in ways that would be impossible to describe in detail. We feel like it’s important to give them a chance to recognize the impact and difference that they are making.”
Around 50 community leaders attended the Family Care Center’s ‘Topping Out’ ceremony, which took place in front of its construction site. The four-story, 80,000-square-foot facility will rest on the hill east of the Knox Medical Pavilion. Scott said the project is still “on track” and will likely be finished by early 2020.
The new facility will house KCH family medicine providers, pediatricians, OB/GYN providers, cardiology practices and cardiac rehab, women’s diagnostic imaging, endocrinology, a new lab and a “larger, more home-like, brand new, state-of-the-art birthing center,” Scott noted during the groundbreaking ceremony in July.
It will cost $45 million to complete the project. Matt Starr, who was appointed in January as the Foundation for Knox Community Hospital’s board chair, said Wednesday that nearly $11 million was raised through pledges and gifts last year.
Starr spoke passionately to the crowd before signing the final beam. He praised the medical talent at the hospital who “saved my life twice” before dreaming aloud about how the new center would impact the community for generations to come.
“Can’t you imagine the lives we will save under this roof?” he asked the crowd, pointing to the towering steel structure behind him.
From the ground up
Despite this winter’s helter-skelter forecast – which included snow, wind, historic lows and flooding – Ron Stull said the weather did not impact the construction schedule. Stull is the director of facilities and construction at KCH, and he said crews have made up for missed days this winter by working on weekends when need be.
“It’s actually impacted the construction workers, but it has not impacted the schedule,” Stull said of the weather.
Construction on the facility formally began in August, Stull said, following the July 16 groundbreaking ceremony. Workers from Elford Construction began preparing the site for the winter months, then underground utilities were installed. Stull called the first few months of construction “a mad dash” as winter approached.
During the winter months, workers poured the facility’s foundation and assembled its steel skeleton. In order to stay on schedule during a particularly rainy stretch, workers injected a solution into the soil to keep it stable.
“Otherwise, we would lose too many days of work,” Stull said.
Now that the building’s foundation is set, Stull said the next steps will become less visible. Crews will soon install the building’s exterior walls and pour a concrete deck. After that, the rest of the progress will be made inside the structure.
As always, Stull said the weather will dictate how soon the project gets done.
“It depends on what kind of summer we get, if we get 15 days of straight rain,” Stull said. “But that’s why we want to get the shear walls up and get the outside wrap on. Then we’re in there working, no matter what happens.”
Changing the game
As those in attendance on Wednesday came up to write their names on the final beam, there was a buzz in the air. Just minutes before, Knox Community Hospital OB-GYN Kristen Witham spoke to the crowd about the need an expanded birthing center would fill.
The hospital has seen an increase in births over recent years, she noted, and this facility will provide more resources to support that trend. It will house twice as many LDRP (labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum) rooms as the current center.
“We’re going to change the way we bring Knox County into existence,” White said.
White believes the Family Care Center could spur growth in Knox County, making it stand out from its neighbors.
“Building a building like this demonstrates to the community and people who might be looking to move into the community that this isn’t just a sleepy, little town in the middle of Ohio,” White said.
“This is a growing, vibrant place that’s great to have a family, raise your children and just enjoy an amazing quality of life. And in quality of life, you have to have quality of health.”
A project like this requires teamwork, White said. It takes collaboration from the design team, construction crew, hospital board and donors. He called the community support “overwhelming.”
“It’s just terrific and it just goes back to what this community does. This community pulls together, they do things together in a collaborative way,” White said. “And when you work together as a team, you can achieve so much more.”
As the crowd began to thin, the same workers who helped raise the final beam got right back to work. The noise of progress resumed behind Scott as he spoke about the hospital’s future and the community’s reaction to it.
“I think people are really excited,” he said with a grin. “You know, in so many rural communities and smaller towns across America, hospitals are moving in the other direction. They’re closing down services, they’re cutting back on staff, they’re forced to align with larger entities and giving up some local control. Here – and again, it’s really a credit to the board and the administration, but it’s also a credit to this community – we’re experiencing the opposite.
“We’re expanding the services that we’re offering. We have a broad range of services here in Knox County that just don’t show up in other rural communities. And so it’s a credit to the community that they are so supportive of this hospital. I think they’re proud of it. I think they’re proud of the fact that our hospital, our community-owned hospital, is expanding and growing in ways that aren’t typical.”
