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City begins clearing downtown hospital site
Saturday, April 05, 2008
SPRINGFIELD — George Miller lived out a long-held dream on Friday, April 4.
He not only got to knock down a building, which he confessed to dreaming about since his Tonka days.
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But the demolition is a major step toward building a new hospital downtown, slated to open in 2012.
"This is the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of people," said Miller, regional president and chief executive officer of Community Mercy Health Partners.
The city has been buying property in 45 acres downtown near Buck Creek to make way for a new hospital since 2005.
Federal environmental and historical reviews of the site delayed demolition.
The city finally knocked down the first building in the site, the former Citgo, 330 W. North St., on Friday.
Mayor Warren Copeland called it a great day for Springfield.
"This was an opportunity that would only come around every 50 years or so and an opportunity we could not miss," he said.
The homes that will be knocked down once housed families, Copeland said, and the city tried to treat them fairly as they moved.
U.S. Rep. David Hobson, R-Springfield, helped secure federal dollars for the project.
He is proud of the community uniting, Hobson said, because the downtown hospital will do more to revitalize the area than anything else.
"I have never, in my tenure in the town, seen the community come together as well as they have on this," he said.
The Citgo was mostly down by Friday afternoon. Residential demolition should begin April 14 and wrap up in 90 to 120 days.
The long-boarded, vacant structures led some people to doubt if the project would ever happen, Miller said.
"But this day (takes) that apprehension and dispels it," he said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0363 or ssommer@coxohio.com.
