STEPHENS CO. HOSPITAL CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES ALONG

February 20, 2008

The second phase of a three-phase construction project at Stephens County Hospital should wrap up in the near future. Stephens County Hospital Administrator Ed Gambrell tells WNEG that if all goes as planned, they should move to the next phase in early March. First, Gambrell says, there will be some touch-up work on the second phase for hospital staff. "We expect to be able to get in to that area sometime next week to begin cleaning and then we are responsible for finishing the floors, and of course, we will have to hang our needle boxes and glove holders and things like that," says Gambrell.

Once the entire project is complete, which Gambrell said previously is hoped to be by the end of this summer, a number of older patient rooms built when the hospital first opened will be completely renovated. The total construction project is slated to cost $4.6 million dollars. That is not the only work going on at Stephens County Hospital though. Gambrell says there is some cosmetic work going on at both the Wilkinson and Clary centers.

According to Gambrell, both facilities are need of the work. "The Wilkinson Center is approximately 20 years old and the Clary Care Center is 16 years old, so both facilities have been around for a while and they need some upgrading and some upkeep and that is what we are doing right now," adds Gambrell. There is no word on the complete scope of that work or for how long that work will be going on at this time.