Ribbon-cutting ceremonies were held last week for a proposed $100 million addition to the St. Elizabeth Health Center’s Boardman campus at McClurg Rd. and Southern Blvd.
      The 165,000-square-foot expansion will include a new, seven story in-patient bed tower that will house 72 medical, surgical and telemetry beds, six intensive care beds and four operating suites.
      As well, maternity services will be shifted from the hospital’s Youngstown location to the Boardman campus.
      The project will be completed in phases. The first phase, which includes shifting the nursery and NICU services to Boardman, will be completed in early 2014. The second phase, which includes the construction of tower floors four through seven, should be done by the end of 2014. However, floors five through seven will open as needed.
      Due to its largely tax exempt status, the $100 million project is not expected to bring additional tax revenues to Boardman Township, or Mahoning County, despite the strain on services that completion of the project will impose on Boardman Township.
      Despite having its own police force, the St. Elizabeth Boardman campus frequently calls fore assistance from the Boardman Police Department.
      The hospital’s first seven-story tower was built while Boardman Township had no ladder trucks to service the upper floors of the structure in the event of an large fire there.
      Recently Boardman Trustees have agreed to purchase a new elevated platform truck that can extend upwards of more than 110 feet, said to be high enough to service the St. Elizabeth tower.
      Hospital officials were asked to contribute to the purchase of the new ladder truck and declined the request made by Boardman Township.
      Based on records from the Mahoning County Auditor’s Office, the St. Elizabeth campus occupies more than 23 acres in Boardman Township.
      That includes a 22.261 tract of land on which no property taxes were paid, and a
      1.6-acre tract with a market value of $984,740 on which $2.96 in property taxes have been paid.
      Another tract at 8423 Market St. of 1.009 acres has a market value of $6.55 million, according to the auditor’s office, on which just $150,989 in property taxes are paid.
      By comparison, the Surgical Center at Southwoods, 7630 Southern Blvd., that has a market value of $10.199 million, pays an annual property tax bill of $235,086.
      According to web reports, the Dayton, Oh. based firm of Shook Construction has been selected to build the new facility.
      According to Daryl S. Cameron, chairman of Humility of Mary’s board of directors, in 2011 the system provided charity care to more than 99,000 individuals at a cost of $27.6 million, a 12% increase over 2010.