Valley Hospital celebrates milestone

TRUNK ROAD -- Hundreds of hands padded with mittens and gloves applauded Friday afternoon in recognition of work completed by numerous union workers at Valley Hospital's new facility off Trunk Road.

A crowd of more than 100 community members and construction workers gathered Friday for the "Topping Off" ceremony, in which a beam bearing a pine tree and an American flag was raised to the highest point on the structure.

The white beam, signed by many at the ceremony and by numerous workers who helped build the structure, will remain visible at the site for a few days before the tree and flag, indicating good fortune, thanks and American pride, are removed so the beam can be put to use.

Norm Stephens, Valley Hospital's chief executive officer, said the beam will be at the top of the hospital's elevator shaft and, after the construction is complete, will only be visible to maintenance workers.

At the ceremony, Valley Hospital officials thanked the 75-80 workers on the project who belonging to the numerous union groups participating in the project.

Pastor Stan Tucker blessed the site, thanking God that the work was completed without injury -- without so much as a blood blister, Stephens said.

As a forklift carried the decorated beam to the site for placement, the crowd funneled into the adjacent Mat-Su Convention and Visitors Bureau for sandwiches and cake.

Stephens, in a project update given Thursday at the Mat-Su Resource Conservation and Development Council Thursday, said the project was moving well ahead of schedule and the hospital should be open in January 2006, rather than the initially planned opening date of May 2006.

While that may be good news for the hospital, Palmer Deputy Mayor Tony Pippel said it means the city won't have sewer and water utilities extended to the site when the hospital opens.

"It would be a real challenge for us to meet the original schedule. The new schedule would be … maybe not impossible, but it would be really hard," Pippel said.

Pippel said the council discussed adding more funds to speed the project along, but decided to proceed as much as possible along the original schedule.

Even that, Pippel said, will be a challenge. In the interest of expediting the process, the city has agreed to reroute the utility corridor around the land of some property owners who were reluctant to sell portions of their property for the needed utility right of way.

Stephens said Valley Hospital officials decided to build a well and septic system on-site to hold the effluent, or sewage, until the city utility hookup is complete.

"It'll be seamless -- no one will ever know unless they sit in the back yard and watch for the truck to come every day," Stephens said.

Although Stephens said there was some initial resistance to having on-site well and septic, Triad and Valley Hospital officials have warmed to the idea.

"We have a lot of earthquakes out here," Stephens said. "We stopped thinking of it as a problem and started thinking of it as our redundant utility system."

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.