Hillsboro Banner

By MICHELLE MCLEAN

Trusting that the Thanksgiving spirit will spur additional support, Angela Kritzberger remains convinced the community will raise $1.5 million in pledges for the Hillsboro Medical Center construction project by year’s end.

To reach that goal, another $312,000 is needed, Kritzberger reported Tuesday. Kritzberger is executive director of the HMC Foundation. 

The $2 million capital campaign — the largest community fund-raising effort ever undertaken in Hillsboro — will help finance a $12.5 million  construction project  at HMC — a new two-story 36-bed nursing home, 16 new assisted living apartments and a remodeled 20-bed hospital. The $1.5 million drive has focused on individual pledges and business donations. Another $500,000 is expected to be generated through grants and other funding sources. The bulk of the construction costs will be financed.

The HMC work site had a high profile visitor this week. Senator Byron Dorgan stopped by Monday about noon. He toured the medical center and talked briefly with administrator Patricia Dirk.

Construction workers continue to “button up” the large project before winter sets in. Meanwhile, Kritzberger and volunteer fundraisers pursue a similar goal.

Eighteen months ago, the HMC Foundation turned to a 12-member steering committee to spearhead a $2 million capital fund drive — under the direction of Kritzberger and committee chairs Dallas and Mary Ann Boeddeker.

Working primarily as a “private campaign” during the fall, winter and spring, the committee met one-on-one with potential donors. A more public push came after May 1, when groundbreaking ceremonies created a broader awareness of the project.

To date the far-reaching fundraising has produced $1,188,000 in donations from individuals, businesses and estates, Kritzberger reported. Contacts will continue to be made. A complete list of donors will be published in the Banner in January.

“Every dollar helps” reach the goal, Kritzberger pointed out. Donors have been asked to consider a five-year pledge — a real commitment to the project, Kritzberger added. The response has been “encouraging.”

“It can be done,” Kritzberger said of the $2 million goal. “If we all work together, we can do it.”

When construction started in May, the contractor scheduled a year’s worth of work on the new construction phase, completing the nursing home and assisted living by the summer of 2008. Remodeling the hospital will take another six months to a year.

In the latest construction update, the general contractor, Nor Son, reported that first floor partition walls are nearly completed.

Metal roof trusses are about 80 percent done. After the trusses, roof sheathing, outlooks, fascia and soffit will be installed. Then the roof will be shingled. Inside the building work on rough-ins for plumbing, HVAV, fire protection and electrical continue.

Window installation will start after Thanksgiving.

Once shingles are installed, the exterior walls will be insulated and temporary heating will be set up for interior finish work.

A new masonry and steel enclosure for the generator/transformer has been completed.

A new concrete approach for clinic parking and about 50 feet of new sidewalk has been poured on the east side of HMC.