Officials with John J. Pershing VA Medical Center say creating access to a temporary construction entrance is critical for growth of the facility, but residents in the surrounding neighborhood say they are concerned about how it will impact daily life.
The item will be a voting item Sept. 5 for the Poplar Bluff City Council, who heard from both parties during a regular meeting Monday.
The VA has requested temporary access to the end of Old Orchard Road, which borders the campus on the north side, behind Poplar Bluff Realty’s property.
Plans are for construction of phase II of an effort to add administrative space and other upgrades.
“I’m very proud to stand before you and say that we are growing, and we’re growing rapidly,” said Kim Adkins, associate medical center director. “A year ago we had about 800 employees within our health care system. If all positions were filled today, that would be more than 1,000. Not all of those are in Poplar Bluff, but probably 800 of them are.”
The VA first approached the council about 18 months ago about Old Orchard Road. Neighbors also expressed concerns at that time about how they would be impacted if access was given to the VA.
Part of the current project involves electronic health management modernization, Adkins said.
“We’ve spent a year and a half doing some very intensive work within the facility, behind the scenes, infrastructure upgrades and that kind of thing,” Adkins said, adding, “Our building is aged and we continually work to upgrade our utilities and infrastructure.”
In the coming weeks, the public will see activity that is not behind the scenes, she continued.
“There will be some demolition on campus, because we’re tearing down some old buildings in preparation for our new mental health residential rehab treatment program,” Adkins said.
Temporary and intermittent access is needed by construction crews to Old Orchard, she said.
“We are currently in the work process for additional training space for the EHM modernization process that will require some upgrades to the northern end of the property,” Adkins said. “Because the work process takes a few months, we’re going to enter wintertime. This project might, and probably will, last into sometime early to mid-summer next year.”
Access will not be needed every day, but site preparation work will need to be done to help expend to the northern end of the campus.
“We will ensure that once that project is complete that access will return to the current state,” Adkins promised. “The fence will go back up and whatever it looks like today, it will be restored to that and the contractors are well aware of that.”
Council member Lisa Parson asked what type of activity would occur through that access point.
It could include large trucks, some equipment, trailers delivered and established, a little bit of paving and additional parking for space construction, Adkins said.
Council member Mark Massingham asked if the VA had an alternate plan to Old Orchard.
“There are alternate options. None of them are easy,” Adkins said. “None of this conversation is easy.”
The VA currently has a temporary easement through the parking lot of Poplar Bluff Realty, but it is not sufficient for the larger vehicles that need access to this part of the campus, Adkins said.
“We do have a very narrow point of focus by our electronic generators that are right there between our property and Poplar Bluff Realty, but the state of Missouri will not grant us any access to that point because of the proximity to those generators and our utilities,” Adkins said. “This is going to be our primary option to be able to continue the construction that we’re pursuing.”
Council member Robert Smith asked if the area would be returned to its current state and Adkins said that it would be.
Old Orchard already has a lot of cracks and heavy trucks could cause more damage, Massingham said.
“If that’s the case, the whole street may need to be replaced,” he said.
The project will have 240 days to be completed, once it is awarded and contracts are final.
“There is no other option,” Adkins said. “All of our utilities are only about 12 inches into the dirt, so we can’t cross those utilities for the ... real concern of rupturing them.”
Denis Kearby of Old Orchard Road told the council that a number of residents in the area are against the access.
“Nobody was for this in our neighborhood and some people who didn’t even live in Old Orchard,” he said.
Semi-loads, cranes and other activity is seen during the day through the current north end access, he said. This uses an easement with Poplar Bluff Realty.
The VA also has other entrances it could use, Kearby said.
“It’s just terrible that we would destroy a beautiful neighborhood with all this traffic,” he said.
Another resident expressed concern that temporary access could turn into full-time access, and that any access would further damage the road.
The individual also suggested the VA purchase existing vacant lots to construct new access.
Adkins said the VA respected the residents’ concerns.
The contractor would be required to return the road to Missouri Department of Transportation standards, Adkins said, potentially bringing it to a better state than it currently is in.
She also asked the council how many times in the past 10 years or so, requests for access like this had been denied.
Winters said in the time he had been city manager, about five years, he was not aware of any.
Parson asked if employees would use the temporary access point and Adkins said they would not.