OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Town of Hanover Supervisor Lou Pelletter is worried about the declining healthcare options for northern Chautauqua County residents.

HANOVER — Hanover Supervisor Lou Pelletter isn’t sugarcoating the reality of healthcare options for residents of northern Chautauqua County.

“Right now, it does not look good for us,” Pelletter said.

Pelletter attended a recent rally calling for the funding for a new Brooks-TLC Hospital to be built. There, he met with Ken Morris, president and CEO of Brooks-TLC Hospital. Pelletter said Morris wants to meet with state Sen. George Borrello, Silver Creek Mayor Jeff Hornburg and Pelletter to discuss the future of the former Lake Shore Hospital site on Routes 5 and 20 in Irving. Pelletter expects that meeting to happen soon.

Pelletter said he believes it is “getting pretty serious” regarding the reality that a hospital in the northern end of Chautauqua County could be lost entirely if Brooks does not receive the funding it needs from New York state.

“I’m very concerned about this. I think we’re going to really be in trouble if Brooks closes,” Pelletter said.

Brooks-TLC Hospital is in dire need of a new facility, and expected to be able to do so. Plans were made for a “micro hospital”, which would include emergency services with 12 bays, 15 medical and surgical beds, four surgical suites and two rooms for procedure, imaging with CT scans, MRI and ultrasound, stat lab services, a pharmacy, support services and a helipad.

More than $70 million was marked by the state for such a project since March 2016, but the funds are still being withheld by the state.

“I don’t really know what we can do about it. I would hate to think that the money isn’t there,” Pelletter said. “… Is that money really there? Has it been allocated somewhere else? I don’t know.”

Meanwhile, the former Lake Shore Hospital campus in Irving remains vacant, as several buyers have eventually passed on the site after further discussions leading up to a potential sale. Pelletter noted that one potential buyer had plans to develop the site into a drug rehabilitation and mental health center, with an urgent care facility located on site, as well. Pelletter said that buyer pulled out because of low reimbursement rates in New York state. Another developer hoped to turn the site into a warehouse, but those plans also did not come to fruition. The campus remains for sale.

“Things don’t look real good for medical (services) in the town of Hanover,” Pelletter said.

Pelletter believes New York state will not grant a license for a new hospital to take over the site.

“Even if we had a (buyer) who said they will come in and do a hospital, we are not going to be able to get a license for it,” Pelletter said.

Pelletter has been a supporter of healthcare in western New York for many years. Prior to Lake Shore Hospital closing, he contacted representatives at various levels of government to try to save the hospital. Pelletter said “from Chuck Schumer down” he received no response. Pelletter also went to Buffalo to advocate for the psychiatric ward and drug rehabilitation center to remain open. He also contacted WellNow Urgent Care to inquire about an expansion from its Dunkirk location, but Pelletter said they were not interested at the time.

“They don’t care,” Hanover Town Clerk Elizabeth VanCheri said of state officials when it comes to healthcare in Chautauqua County.

VanCheri attended a training in New York City where Schumer was a guest speaker along with New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“They were talking about how they care about the rural communities and it took everything I had in me not to stand up and say ‘How do you care? You’ve closed our hospitals.'” VanCheri said. “… It’s heartbreaking because people were cheering, yet we’re living the reality. There is no hospital here. … I don’t believe they do care about us.”

Pelletter noted that at the height of the pandemic, Lake Shore Hospital was eyed as a potential emergency center. However, Pelletter claims that after telling Senator George Borrello, Assemblyman Andy Goodell, County Executive PJ Wendel, the Silver Creek Village Board and the Hanover Town Board that the hospital was ready to go, “nothing happened.”

Pelletter said, “That kind of told me that there is not going to be a hospital here. During a pandemic, when they called because they needed (a hospital) all of a sudden, nothing.”

Pelletter hopes that the upcoming meeting will lead to some sort of partnership with Brooks-TLC to bring a medical care facility to the former Lake Shore Hospital campus.

“I don’t know if we can save the hospital. I don’t even know if we can save Brooks Hospital at this point,” Pelletter said.