NEIGHBORHOOD HOSPITAL
Smaller medical facility proposed off Route 100
“We would have a problem with 48 feet. Nothing else in the township is that high.”
— Gilbertsville Fire Chief Andrew Duncan
DOUGLASS (MONT.) » A new proposal to build a hospital along Route 100 adjacent to the Wawa at the intersection with Grosser Road was presented to the township supervisors.
This proposal — by a different developer than the one two years ago that wanted to build an 85-bed hospital on four floors at the same site — is, by comparison, smaller and shorter. It also calls for two buildings instead of three.
The current proposal is from Embree Developers, which would develop the site for Lehigh Valley Hospital Network and the idea is to build a one-story “neighborhood hospital” that is only 32 feet high. It would have 10 in-patient beds and 11 emergency exam rooms and would be geared primarily toward emergency room visits.
It would not be used for scheduled surgeries or for births, except in emergencies, and no patient would be expected to stay there for
more than five days, the supervisors were told.
A similar facility has been built in Lower Nazareth Township, in Northampton County, and is currently being expanded because the model works so well, the supervisors were told.
The previous plan had concerned residents of the Summer Hill subdivision due both to its height, its relative proximity to their homes, and the possibility of helicopter landings and takeoffs.
This plan calls for both the hospital and medical building to be built closer to Route 100 and there are no plans for a helicopter pad.
However, even though the proposed three-story office building is nearly 20 feet shorter than the 65-foot hospital proposed two years ago, Gilbertsville Fire Chief Andrew Duncan still has a problem — his company’s tallest ladder is 35 feet.
“We would have a problem with 48 feet. Nothing else in the township is that high,” Duncan told the supervisors.
No formal plan has been filed with the township as the developers said they wanted to present the concept plan to the supervisors, and the public, to be transparent. An official filing is anticipated at the end of March or early April.