“And hope that in one year’s time we’re going to have a huge party inside without masks and with the heat on,” Dr. Andrew Lim, medical director of emergency medicine at Bristol Health, said Thursday at a beam topping off ceremony outside the hospital.

The event was attended by both city and hospital officials.

The addition is on budget and on time to be ready sometime in 2021 to coincide with the hospital’s 100 year anniversary. Once that is complete, the Emergency Center operations will be moved into the addition while crews begin renovations on the current EC space.

“This is just yet another new beginning for what Bristol Hospital is going to continue to be for the community,” said Bristol Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu.

The first phase of Bristol Hospital’s Emergency Center project was completed in 2019, when the hospital unveiled its new 10-bed Behavioral Health Unit. The 2,700-square-foot unit is designed to meet the mental health and substance abuse needs of the community in light of the nation’s opioid epidemic.

Phase two required a number of utility lines to be moved underground on Newell Road, which is now owned by the hospital. Newell, which leads to the Emergency Center entrance, will no longer be a one-way road and will now circle in a U-shape off of and back onto Goodwin Street.

After the addition is done and the current ER space is renovated, the fully-renovated Emergency Center will be about 23,000-square-feet. It will include 21 private exam rooms, one trauma room with two bays and five rooms dedicated to pediatric patients.

Glenn Heiser, chairman of the Bristol Hospital board of directors, called the Emergency Room a “vital touchpoint” because it serves as the front door to the hospital.

“There is probably no better example of caring today for your tomorrow than this Emergency Center,” Heiser said.

Kurt Barwis, president and CEO of Bristol Health, remarked about how amazing it is that the construction was able to be carried out and remain on schedule during the covid-19 pandemic, all while the staff in the current ER space conducted business as usual. He said the transformation that has taken place over the last eight months -- when construction broke ground -- has been extraordinary, adding that city officials worked together with the hospital and the two were in “lockstep” with one another.

According to Mary Lynn Gagnon, executive director of the Bristol Hospital Foundation, the foundation has raised about $4 million toward the renovation project. Although that falls just half a million dollars short of the hospital’s goal, Gagnon said she is hoping to raise another $1 million before all is said and done.

“I have to say Mary Lynn and her team have done an amazing job,” Barwis said. 

Hearing on expanded $34M Killingly school project set for Saturday

John Penney  KILLINGLY – Discussions on a proposal to lock-in a time-sensitive state grant reimbursement rate aimed at defraying the cost of expanded renovation work at a Killingly elementary school raced ahead this month and could conclude with a Saturday vote by the Town Council.

Days after the council on Dec. 2 voted to withdraw an application to the state Office of School Construction Grants & Review for a $16.5 million proposal to demolish portable classrooms and add a new wing to the Killingly Memorial School, the council set a Saturday public hearing on a new plan to conduct a comprehensive rehabilitation of the Main Street school's main building, a move made after state officials offered an attractive reimbursement package for the work.

In all, the amended $34 million deal would, in addition to the previously applied for work, include the replacement of an antiquated heating system at the Main Street school with a combination heating-cooling system; re-doing the facility’s electrical system; adding a fire-suppression system to the main building; renovating the cafeteria’s kitchen area; and conducting asbestos abatement throughout the structure.

The town’s share of the expanded project is pegged at $9.5 million with an estimated 72% state reimbursement rate, adding $2 million to the job on the town side in exchange for about $15 million in new upgrades.

The state’s stance is having workers concentrating on just one comprehensive renovation project is more efficient than doing piece-meal work over the course of several years.

Initially, the council was not expected to vote on whether to appropriate and borrow the additional money for months, but the prospect of getting on the state’s “priority” grant list this year led to the scheduling of Saturday’s public hearing in which residents are invited to comment – but not vote – on the proposal.

Instead of a town meeting, in which residents typically vote to approve such high-value issues, the council will decide the outcome of the proposal thanks to expanded powers instituted by Gov. Ned Lamont’s COVID-19-related executive orders. The original, smaller Memorial School upgrade project was also approved by the council without a public vote.

What's next

What: Killingly Town Council public hearing on expanded Killingly Memorial School project

When: 1 p.m., Saturday

Access: To view and comment during the hearing, go to https://www.killingly.org and click on the Facebook Live tab. More information on the project can be viewed at https://www.killingly.org/home/news/kms-expanded-renovation-project.

The Board of Education on Wednesday unanimously gave its backing for the council to move ahead with the expanded work.

Town Manager Mary Calorio said the accelerated nature of the proceedings is in an effort to lock-in the 72% state reimbursement rate – the highest the town can expect for such work – this funding cycle.

“If the council approves the plan, I’ll be emailing the minutes of the public hearing to the state on Saturday so they can amend the priority grant list that’s due to the governor by Tuesday,” she said.

During the council’s Dec. 5 meeting, Chairman Jason Anderson said he was concerned over the fast pace of the proceedings and the possibility that the cost estimates of the rehab might increase before shovels get into the ground.

“I have serious concerns we’re trying to rush this,” he said. “We haven’t, in a sense, vetted this expanded part of the project. In my experience, rushing things usually backfires and creates more issues in the long run.”

Councilor Ernest Lee countered that such projects nearly always come with risks, but the reimbursement “carrot” dangled by the state is too attractive to pass up.

“The state is taking almost all the risk,” he said. “The greater risk is pushing this out another year. Time tends not to be a friend to estimates.”

Councilor Ed Grandelski echoed Lee’s statements and urged residents to take part in Saturday’s public hearing.

“I think we have to take advantage of this,” Grandelski said. “Right now, we’re good for the 72% (reimbursement rate), but wait a year, we might not get as much.”

Seven of the eight council members present at the Dec. 5 meeting approved going ahead with Saturday’s public hearing with only Anderson voting against the move.

If the comprehensive project is approved, work could begin during the summer of 2022.