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Cortez City Council approves hospital site plan

Southwest Memorial expansion includes new patient wing, office building
Plans show the layout of one phase of expansion of Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez. The construction is part of a $14.2 million capital improvement project.

Cortez City Council members on Tuesday unanimously voted to approve a site plan for the Southwest Memorial Hospital expansion project.

The expansion includes a 25,000-square-foot patient addition, a 25,000-square-foot medical office building and an 8,000-square-foot emergency room addition, according to city documents.

The existing hospital is about 100,000 square feet, and the expansions will bring it to just over 164,000 square feet. The hospital campus at 1131 N. Mildred Road is about 16 acres, and just over half that will be changed during construction.

The emergency room expansion and patient wing will be added to the existing building, extending north from the current hospital site, according to project documents. The office building will be added on the south side of the hospital campus.

Ralph Wagner, owner’s representative for the hospital project, said he expects some construction to start in late summer or early fall. However, the construction will continue for a number of years, he said.

Wagner said the public will be pleased with the renovations.

“I’m sure the community will be very proud of it and happy with the result,” he said.

The construction is part of a $14.2 million capital improvement project at the hospital. In November, county voters approved the hospital district’s request for a limited sales and use tax by a 3-2 margin to fund renovations for the 40-year-old medical facility.

The 0.4 percent tax – 4 cents per every $10 – would be applied to money spent in Montezuma County but would exclude certain items such as most food purchased in grocery stores, prescription drugs, residential utilities and nonlicensed farm equipment. Construction was expected to start in March.

The project also includes a 5,400-square-foot ambulance bay and 4,800-square-foot operations facility, which will be built on the hospital campus northwest of the hospital’s helipad. Cortez City councilors approved a site-development plan for that phase of the project in March, and last week the council approved an ordinance vacating a 40-foot easement near the ambulance bay to make way for construction.



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