With funding assured through USDA Rural Development, the groundbreaking for the Jamestown Regional Medical Center is set for Wednesday and the community is invited to join the dignitaries at the event.
"We're encouraging the public to come out and celebrate the groundbreaking," said Bill Kennedy, hospital marketing director. "This new facility belongs to the community."
The groundbreaking is set for 4:30 p.m. at the end of a road that as of Friday was still being built to the site. It will feature all three members of North Dakota's congressional delegation, Gov. John Hoeven and local government officials and dignitaries.
Kennedy said Sens. Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad and Rep. Earl Pomeroy have been very supportive of the project and its potential for rural health. He added it was very gratifying that as of Friday all three said they would be attending the groundbreaking ceremony.
"The congressional delegation is excited about the potential of this medical center," Kennedy said. "This can be an example of how rural health care can be delivered in the future. And Gov. Hoeven understands the importance of this project to the state."
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Dallas Tonsager, undersecretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, and Jasper Schneider, its state director, will be on hand to award the giant ceremonial check of $46 million for construction of the medical center to Jamestown Hospital Board chairman Harvey Huber and hospital staff.
To make it easier for members of the community to attend, James River Transit is going to ferry people from a designated parking area three-quarters of a mile from the construction site.
In a test run Friday, James River Senior and Community Center Director Laurie McGuire drove the subgrade of what will be a four-lane paved road to the site. She said that although the senior center isn't going to be open on Wednesday, which is Veterans Day, if there's interest she'll provide a bus starting from there. The bus could take older folks who don't want to drive all the way out to the site on their own to the groundbreaking.
McGuire said Friday was also an opportunity to check the route for Dial-A-Ride users when the medical center opens.
"We've been talking for a year about transportation," she said. "We've decided our drivers will take the frontage road."
McGuire added James River Transit is a public transit system and is available to anyone, not just seniors or those with disabilities. As such, she said, the transit system is more than willing to provide transportation to the new facility.
"The James River Senior and Community Center is a partner," Kennedy said. "We appreciate their willingness to provide transportation Wednesday and later when the facility is open."
The hour-long groundbreaking ceremony will mark the beginning of 20 months of construction on the 50-acre site on the south side of Interstate 94 near the U.S. Highway 281 Bypass. Expected to open in mid 2011, the three local clinics, Innovis, Meritcare and MedCenter One have been invited to co-locate in the medical office building. That building won't begin construction until closer to the completion of the medical center.
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"The groundbreaking celebrates the beginning of the construction process and the contributions of the USDA and the North Dakota congressional delegation in the development of the project," Kennedy said.
Sun reporter Toni Pirkl can be reached at (701) 952-8453 or by e-mail at tonip@jamestownsun.com
