Hudson Hospital & Clinics petitions to annex 20 acres

Talk about it

Hudson Hospital & Clinics has petitioned to annex 20 acres into the city for an expansion of the facility scheduled to begin later this year.

The Hudson City Council formally received the petition at its May 15 meeting. It was forwarded to the Plan Commission for review and a recommendation on whether the council should approve the annexation.

The two parcels (2.5 acres and 17.5 acres) are the former homesites of George and Mary Hoel and Einar and Rita Horne. They lie just east of the hospital in the town of Hudson.

The hospital is planning construction of a new medical office building on the parking lot on the east side of the facility, and will need to create additional parking space.

The road access to the facility also will be changed to make it more customer-friendly, according to Pat Cooksey, the hospital’s marketing director.

“Next year, we will be celebrating our 10th anniversary of being in our present location, and when we built this campus we fully intended to grow with the community,” Cooksey said in response to a request for information about the project from the Star-Observer. “Our current expansion is the next step in achieving this vision.”

She said the new medical office building would be completed in 2013.

The hospital purchased the Hoel and Horne properties a few years ago. The present facility opened in 2003 and also houses Hudson Physicians Clinic.

It cost $43.1 million to build, $15.8 million of which was raised from area charitable foundations and donors in the community.

Central Bank plans

Construction of a new Central Bank branch office in the Prairie View Center is set to begin following the council’s approval of final development plans for the facility.

The 7,500-square-foot office will be built on a vacant lot immediately south of Hudson Bagel & Coffee at the northeast corner of County UU (Vine Street) and Carmichael Road.

It will have a drive-through window at the back of the building and parking for 15 vehicles.

The bank will share the access from County UU with the rest of the business center.

Elliot Architects of Hudson designed the building.

Central Bank will be moving from its current Prairie View Center office into the new building when it is completed. The bank also has a branch office in North Hudson.

Lakefront Park concessions

The council accepted a proposal from Dough Boys Pizza to sell concessions out of the Lakefront Park bathhouse this summer. Dough Boys was the only business to submit a proposal to be the park vendor. Chicago Dogs of Stillwater was the vendor the past couple of summers.

Dough Boys, owned by Chad Hoyt, moved from the Hudson hill to the back of the building at 529 Second St. last July. “From the new location, we are only steps away from the bathhouse and can literally see it from our front window,” Hoyt said in his lease proposal.

He said the bathhouse menu will include pizza slices, $3; nachos with cheese, $2.50; popcorn, $1; ice cream novelties, $2; candy, $1; chips, $1; fresh fruit and vegetables, $2; bottled water, $1; bottled soda, $1.50; and Gatorade, $2.

The city will receive 5 percent of the gross sales as rent for concession stand.

Fire protection for fire hall

The council approved spending $4,800 for the design of a fire detection and sprinkler system for the Public Safety Building at 222 Walnut St.

J.F. Aherns Co. of Menomonie got the contract when its bid came in $1,700 below the next-lowest bid. The four bids for the design work ranged upward to a high of $13,883.

Fire Chief Jim Frye explained that the building where $5 million worth of emergency response vehicles, equipment and supplies are stored currently doesn’t have a fire detection and suppression system.

“After a recent incident where a fire truck caught on fire in the station, it became apparent that this could have spelled disaster for the community if the fire had not been noticed by someone who happened to be in the station at the time the fire started,” Frye wrote in a memo to council members.

The council budgeted $50,000 for the installation of the system in 2011.

Other action

In other business, the council: