OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Mary LaRowe, right, Brooks Memorial Hospital’s CEO, speaks about the planned new facility in Fredonia at a Tuesday meeting of the village’s Planning Board. Looking on is Marc Romanowski, Brooks’ top attorney for the construction efforts.

Brooks Memorial Hospital got another site plan extension for its new Fredonia facility Tuesday.

Fredonia’s Planning Board voted unanimously to grant Brooks-TLC Hospital System, Inc., a third one-year extension on plans for the new building. The planning board originally approved the site plans in June 2019.

Brooks’ original proposal for a new facility, in what is now a grape field off East Main Street, is basically unchanged. That’s according to Marc Romanowski, Brooks-TLC’s legal counsel for the plan.

Cornell Cooperative Extension still owns the land, he said. Brooks-TLC has extended its contract to purchase the land and will close the deal by year’s end, Romanowski said.

Brooks-TLC now hopes to start construction on the building next spring, he said.

“The project itself hasn’t changed. It’s still same project you approved three or four years ago,” he said.

A second access point, to come off Route 60 near Walmart, is the biggest alteration, Romanowski said. That was added back in 2019 after significant community criticism about lack of a second access. The main access point is across the street from the Fredonia Central Schools.

Responding to a question from Planning Board member David Fridmann, Romanowski said the state Department of Transportation has approved the concept of a cutout for the Route 60 access. However, it has not approved any of the engineering on it, because that’s not ready yet.

Fridmann also wondered if anything other than the COVID-19 pandemic has held up the project. Romanowski replied that COVID was the most significant hold-up.

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“COVID had it at a complete standstill,” he said. “They (the state Department of Health) didn’t touch this for the better part of two years.”

The Department of Health is currently re-reviewing the project plans. Brooks-TLC CEO Mary LaRowe acknowledged that a reduction in beds from the original plan was requested by the state Health Department.

“Services have to match what the community needs, definitely,” she said.

“We’re as frustrated as anyone else that this (new facility) is not out here,” she continued soon after. “We think that this is the time to push on forward.”

Board Chairman Scott Mackay asked Brooks-TLC to provide another copy of its 2019 traffic study. Romanowski had said earlier that the patterns observed in that study are likely different now, due to COVID-related changes, such as more people working from home.

Mackay also double-checked that Brooks-TLC will close on the property this year. Romanowski assured him it was anticipated for November.

The board then granted the extension and Romanowski said, “Hopefully, I won’t see you a year from now.”