State regulations push back hospital groundbreaking

State regulations push back hospital groundbreaking

New Baptist facility start will have to wait until August

news@theeveningtimes.com

Groundbreaking for the new hospital will have to wait until next month due to state law requirements regulating the method of construction the project will have to use.

Crittenden County and Baptist Memorial Health Care had hoped to break ground on July 21, but will have to delay it until some time in August.

County Judge Woody Wheeless said they had hoped to use a construction management at risk method, but found out that they are required by Arkansas law to use a construction agency management approach which takes longer.

The construction manager at risk is a method which involves hiring a construction manager to deliver the project within a guaranteed maximum price based on construction documents and specifications.

Agency construction management is a fee-based service which a construction manager is responsible exclusively to the own — Baptist — and acts in the owner’s interests throughout each stage of he project.

An agency construction manager also does not contract with subcontractors.

“Arkansas state constitution is the reason we are delaying everything,” Wheeless said. “We were hoping to be able to do what they call a construction manager at-risk. We’re not going to be able to do that. We have to go with a construction agency manager, which means the drawings have to be 100 percent complete before you can do anything. So that automatically has put us two months behind.”

Baptist Memorial Health Care is proposing to build a new $25 million, 50,000 square foot facility along Interstate 55 that will have 15 to 20 beds.

The cost to build the new hospital is being supported by a one cent sales tax which voters approved that will generate $30 million over the next five years.

The new hospital will fill the void left when Crittenden Regional Hospital declared bankruptcy and closed in August 2014.

County Treasurer Charlie Suiter said the county has already collected $1.088 million in taxes for the hospital construction.

The county took in $544,978 in May and $533,988 in June.

The money is being held in a dedicated hospital building sales tax fund.

Suiter said the county is on track to collect about $6.5 million this year. “It’s in its own fund,” Suiter said. “If the economy stays good, we should collect around $32 million.”

Wheeless said the delay in breaking ground will not change the overall scope of the project or the price to build it.

The county and Baptist have already reviewed architectural firms.

Earl Swensson Associates of Nashville was the top ranked firm followed by Evans-Taylor-Foster-Childress (ETFC) of Memphis and Paul-Kim-Monica (PKM) Architects.

ESA specializes in hospital design.

They have also already sent out requests for qualifications to hire a construction

manager.

“This has just delayed us a couple of months,” Wheeless said. “When you do a private-public partnership there is a difference between everything being private. But we are working on trying to get that in place. We should have an architect and a construction manager in place by the end of the month. And from that point on it will start picking up. So will try and have a groundbreaking next month. We just don’t have a definite date.”

By Mark Randall