Memorial Health officials have all the details in place for their new facility in Jerome Township, except how to get there.
At Thursday night’s Memorial Board of Trustees meeting officials learned that an Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) project planned for U.S. 42 has thrown a monkey wrench into site accessibility.
“It’s a little bit frustrating,” Memorial Executive Vice President Spence Fisher said. “They haven’t even started the design.”
Earlier this year, Memorial announced plans to build a $25.5-million, 40,000-square-foot, two-story medical office building planned near the intersection of U.S. 42 and U.S. 33. The facility will be called the Memorial Jerome Medical Center and will provide primary care, specialty care, occupational medicine, ancillary services and an urgent care operation.
But a growth in the Jerome Township area has prompted ODOT to schedule a roadway renovation and widening project for the area of U.S. 42 and U.S. 33.
Fisher said the state, county and developers in the area have been meeting about the project, which is slated to begin in 2025. On Memorial’s end, the problem is that an access road from the site of the new facility to U.S. 42 could be installed only to be torn out when the ODOT work begins.
Fisher said the end goal is to have one access road from Industrial Parkway and another from U.S. 42 that form a loop along the Memorial site. He said the access from Industrial Parkway could still be installed without the U.S. 42 plans being finalized.
The issue should not delay the project, which is slated for a 10-12 month construction timeline once ground is broken.
In other business, the board:
-Heard from Memorial Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jason Russell that the hospital’s coronavirus numbers continue to be at a low level, similar to previous months. He said the facility generally has a few COVID patients and one or two staff members off work because of the virus at any particular time. He also noted that the Ohio’s community spread numbers for the virus are trending down. Union County is showing fairly low community spread, but he was unsure how those trends would impact the hospital’s remaining COVID-related restrictions as the facility prepares for increasing patient numbers in the cold weather months. Russell also said the facility is not seeing much of a spike of RSV cases in children that some areas of the country are experiencing.
–Were updated on the process of filling the board seat of retiring member Dennis Stone. Officials are working with the Union County Commissioners and are gathering a list of four to six potential candidates for the seat.
–Approved the draft 2023 operating budget.
–Approved newly worded policies for the board’s roles and responsibilities as well as conflicts of interest.