By Kathianne Boniello
Bayside civic leaders were unwavering in their opposition to the building of an addition to St. Mary's Hospital for Children in Bayside last week after a Jan. 22 meeting between the activists, U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside) and hospital officials.
In December St. Mary's announced a $591,000 grant from Ackerman to build a new addition to house the hospital's rehabilitation program.
Last week's meeting was called after civic leaders Frank Skala, president of the East Bayside Homeowners Association, and Dr. Blanche Felton, president of the John Golden Park Association, met with Ackerman in early January to protest the grant. Their groups represents residents who live near the private children's hospital.
In a Jan. 16 news briefing St. Mary's officials stressed there were no plans for a major expansion in the works and that a proposal to build a modest addition to the existing building to house the hospital's rehabilitation program was still in the conceptual stages.
St. Mary's officials joined the two Bayside civic leaders and other members of the community last week in Ackerman's #Bayside office.
Skala said the meeting had not changed his position on the St. Mary's addition.
“There will be no expansion,” he said, “not one brick.”
Felton said “there was nothing new in what they were saying” during last week's meeting in Ackerman's office.
But St. Mary's officials welcomed the chance to sit down with the community representatives.
St. Mary's spokeswoman Beryl Williams said this week she, Dr. Burton Grebin, president and chief executive officer of the St. Mary's Healthcare System for Children, and Libby Zimmer, head of the St. Mary's Foundation, were hopeful that the meeting would open up communication with the civic leaders.
“We felt it was a good opportunity for us to clarify some of the misconceptions,” Williams said. “This is a win-win situation for everyone.”
During the January press briefing, Grebin, said plans for an addition were not complete.
The addition, Williams said, would be built in a courtyard buffered from nearby residential homes and facing Little Neck Bay. Existing school trailers would be removed and those classes would be relocated inside the building.
The construction of any new addition, Grebin said, would be accompanied by the relocation of the hospital's Home Care program – a mostly administrative aspect of St. Mary's that serves 1,700 children in their homes in Yonkers, Queens and Long Island.
Moving the Home Care program, he said, would eliminate about 50 cars that come through the neighborhood daily. Another 50 or so cars belonging to people who visit the program periodically during the week would also be eliminated, Grebin said.
By moving the Home Care program off site, they said, St. Mary's could reorganize its space within its existing facility.
A reorganization and the addition of a new 4,000- to 8,000- square-foot section would allow St. Mary's to expand its rehabilitation program.Felton, who emphasized that she was supportive of St. Mary's mission of serving children, said the relocation of some of the hospital's administrative offices should be enough to accommodate St. Mary's goals.
“Considering the size of those programs,” Felton said “if they moved out of those offices, they would have plenty of room in the building.”
