Hospital Impact Report Decision Awaited-July 14, 1977

The hospital representatives met with officials from the office of state Secretary of Environmental Affairs Evelyn Murphy in an attempt to reverse her request last month for an environmental study.

According to John C. Fuller, president of the hospital board of trustees, the delay involved in writing a formal environmental study would significantly increase construction costs through annual inflation. Sec. Murphy called for the report last month after her office was contacted by the state Department of Public Health (DPH). Her action has stopped a decision by the DPH on the crucial certificate of need and in turn halted progress on the expansion proposal.

The proposed hospital addition includes the addition of 80 beds, a new emergency room, operating rooms, X-ray department, laboratories, cafeteria, pharmacy, and kitchens on hospital land and the nearby 5.7-acre Civic Center site. The town meeting voted in January to sell the land to the hospital for $2 million, and approval was added on a March referendum.

Hospital Administrator David Buchmueller told the environmental affairs staff that hospital planners had exhausted all other expansion alternatives. He said that certain contiguous pieces of property prevented them from building in a different configuration on their present site. Although the hospital had considered land on Route 1 in Dedham, property in Walpole, and buildings at Foxboro State Hospital, none was judged feasible.

The state is also concerned about the traffic generated from the expansion and resulting air pollution from both automobiles and the new heating plant. Terenzio Genovesi, a consultant for the hospital, assured the state official that the new boilers would burn cleaner than the existing 40-year-old equipment which will be bypassed.

Parking problems will be alleviated by the construction of a new MBTA commuter rail parking lot, and some of the traffic associated with the Civic Center will be offset. Mr. Fuller told state officials yesterday that the hospital believed it had answered most environmental questions in the data supplied to the DPH for the certificate of need.

William Hicks, chief planner for the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, pointed out that state law requires an impact statement for any project that “might” affect the environment significantly. He added that the hospital had probably gathered much of the necessary documentation, and he estimated it would take approximately six months for preparation and state review rather than the customary year of study.

The decision on whether to continue asking for an impact statement is expected within the next 10 days. The state planner said he had received a letter of opposition signed by several Norwood residents, including Jeannette Troiano, who pointed out that though the purchase of the Civic Center land would replace the buildings, the town has lost park land that will not be replaced.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger