Community takes look at hospital plans

By JUSTIN HARMON/Staff

For 10 months, the community has been waiting to see what the new Johnston Memorial Hospital building will look like. On Thursday, they got the chance to share their opinions.
For two hours, hospital and contracted architecture and consultant staff stood in the lobby of the JMH Cancer Center with the proposed plans and layout of the building, ready to answer any questions from the 30 or so members of the community who participated.
According to the hospital’s Chief Operating Officer Steve Givens, the plans on display still have some revisions left, but are close to the final product.
“We’re getting really close,” he said. “A little tweaking will occur.”
Givens said that so far response has been good.
“The reception has been really positive… There’s a lot of interest in the new facility,” he said.
Tom Phillips was happy with what he found.
“It’s very impressive,” he said. “I’m really interested in seeing the final plans.”
Another member of the public, David Barnum was impressed as well.
“This is an excellent project for the community,” he said.
Debbie VanDyke was more impressed with the level of service the hospital was offering at the forum.
“The presentation is great. There are a lot of people here on hand to answer questions,” she said.
Even Town of Abingdon Mayor Lois Humphreys made it out to check into the goings-on.
“It’s a neat place. I’m looking forward to it and it’ll be quite an asset,” she said.
While much of what the public saw has been talked about since the hospital announced its plans to build in October 2007, Givens said they did have something new to talk about: going green.
According to Givens, plans call for the building to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) certified, which will cut back on the environmental impact.
The lead LEED consultant Eric Acre said building the new hospital with certification would reduce the impact as and cost. By installing things such as high-efficient heating, air conditioning, water fixtures and toilets, the building’s utility costs and use will be cut down. In addition, Acre said planners would look at landscaping with native plants and others that don’t require as much watering, as well as paying attention to the little details, such as the paints and carpets.
“We’re trying to do all that in budget,” he said. “We’ll get the whole team together and make sure they understand the requirements.”
Givens said JMH would be the only LEED-certified hospital in the area.
While Johnston Memorial’s Chief Operating Officer Steve Givens said plans for the new building are going along well, there haven’t been any decisions made on what to do with the old building once it’s empty.