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Salina, Kan., Health Foundation Asks Permission for New Blood Platelet Center

Posted on: Friday, 26 August 2005, 00:00 CDT

Aug. 25--The Salina Regional Health Foundation wants to demolish a house at 120 W. Prescott and replace it with a residential-looking Red Cross blood platelet center.

To get the Salina Heritage Commission's permission to do that, the commission is going to have to see some proof that the house can't be rehabilitated into a residential structure.

Members of the commission said the proof wasn't there on Monday when the health foundation made its formal proposal to the Heritage Commission.

By a 6-0 vote, commissioners tabled the request until they have better information to work with.

The vacant home hasn't been inspected since 2000, and they asked that a more up-to-date report of the home's condition be presented at a future meeting.

"I don't think we can make any kind of decision without a current report," Heritage Commission member Mary Douglass said. "I have not seen, in (Bill) Medina's construction report or in the paperwork we've seen from city staff, that the burden of proof has been met that this building isn't rehabilitatable."

At the request of the health foundation, Medina Construction, 211 W.

Walnut, inspected the property and determined it would cost $247,000 to rehabilitate the home into a residential structure consistent with the neighborhood, which lies in one of Salina's four historic districts.

The Heritage Commission asked that a city building inspector look at the building and present a report regarding the feasibility of rehabilitating it. Dean Andrew, director of planning and community development for the city, said that report could be available within 30 days.

Tom Martin, executive director of the Salina Regional Health Foundation, said his agency would own the platelet center, but it would be operated by the Red Cross. Platelets help blood to clot and would be especially in demand at Salina Regional Health Center, 400 S. Santa Fe, for heart surgery patients and at the nearby Tammy Walker Cancer Center.

We can blend in Martin pointed to the Morrison House, a health foundation property in the same historic district, as an example of how medical-use facilities can be blended in effectively.

The Morrison House, which provides free housing for family members of patients at the adjacent hospital, opened in 1993.

"I think we have a proven track record over that period of time of showing we can provide a much-needed human service need, and we can do it in a way that's compatible with the neighborhood," Martin said, "and even do it in such a way that it will enhance the neighborhood and property values in the neighborhood."

Martin said he met with the owners of the two homes to the west of the property and the three across Prescott Avenue, and they signed a petition in favor of the project. He and Red Cross officials also recently organized a meeting with about 20 neighbors at the Morrison House.

"The support for this project that I've received from the majority of the people in the district, as well as the community at large, has been overwhelming," Martin said. "At that meeting (with the neighbors), I heard not a single negative comment about the concept of the project."

'Dangerous' precedent There were negative comments aplenty at the Heritage Commission meeting.

Douglass said parts of a memorandum of understanding developed a few years ago between members of the neighborhood and Salina Regional officials would be violated under the proposal.

One she mentioned was that facades of rehabilitated historic structures should be maintained, which wasn't part of the plan that was presented.

"I'm seeing poor faith exhibited on the part of the hospital," Douglass said, "and it's my determination that the blood platelet center would be better served on another piece of property."

Other members of the commission agreed with Douglass' view that a decision in favor of the project would set "a dangerous precedent" that could allow for future hospital development within the historic district.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Salina Journal, Kan.

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Source: The Salina Journal

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