Sep 7, 2006 By Steve Ferris 4 min read

Uniontown City Council tabled a vote Wednesday on an ordinance that would vacate the city’s ownership of Thompson Avenue and part of an alley that Uniontown Hospital requested for an expansion project. Council voted to table the matter at a meeting that followed an hour-long hearing in which several residents that live near the hospital said they wanted more information about the hospital’s plans.

Thompson Avenue and an alley that runs between Thompson Avenue and Easy Street are the roadways involved.

If the ordinance had passed, the city would have kept ownership of both roadways until the hospital broke ground for its planned addition, solicitor Daniel Webster said.

He said the ordinance includes another clause that says the city will retain ownership of the roadways if the hospital doesn’t start the project within three years.

“If ground is not broken within a three-year period, the ordinance becomes null and void,” Webster said.

The ordinance would have also require the city to remove five parking meters in Delaware Avenue immediately adjacent to the Medical Arts Building and three meters immediately adjacent to the visitor parking lot.

Paul Bacharach, hospital president, said the expansion plan features a 28-bed addition that would extend out from the existing building and run along Delaware Avenue past Thompson Avenue.

The emergency department would be expanded and the Medical Arts Building would be demolished, Bacharach said.

He said the expansion would enable the hospital to convert its patient rooms to private rooms.

Bacharach and administrator Donald Record brought conceptual sketches of the addition to the meeting and explained that the hospital will not hire an architect and pay for a formal building design unless city council vacates the road and alley, which are needed for the project.

Tammy Kaufman of Delaware Avenue said she didn’t understand how council could agree to vacate the roadways based only on conceptual plans from the hospital.

She said she believed that the expansion would benefit the hospital, but it would also result in traffic congestion for people living near the facility and the hospital should have told residents about the project.

Webster said the hospital’s construction plans would have to pass a city code review.

Several residents they also support the hospital project, but they want to know more about it and about the traffic changes.

John R. Spellman, owner of Spellman’s Photographic Studio on Route 21 near the hospital, said he supported the hospital project and didn’t object to closing the part of the alley that is nearest to the hospital as long as the upper part of the alley remains open so delivery trucks can access his business.

He said the upper part of the alley is 17 feet wide and he would like the city to widen it to 20 feet.

Webster said the ordinance would close the alley up to the border of Spellman’s lot.

Bacharach said closing the road and alley would likely cause traffic problems on Easy Street, but the state Department of Transportation has agreed to install a traffic light at the Easy Street-Route 21 intersection and add turning lanes to both roads.

Record said the light will be installed by the end of 2008. “That’s already been approved,” he said.

Councilmen Joseph Giachetti and Blair R. Jones Sr. said PennDOT did not inform council that the traffic light had been approved.

Jones said he was not opposed to the hospital’s expansion project, but the lack of communication between the hospital, PennDOT, the city and residents has created a problem.

Councilman Gary Crozier said the hospital’s $41-million project would benefit the city, but he preferred tabling the matter instead of seeing council vote against it.

Webster said ordnances require four affirmative votes to pass.

Council voted 3-1 to table the matter. Giachetti voted against the motion. Councilman Bob Cerjanec was absent.

In other business, council adopted an ordinance that expands the number of Downtown Business District Authority board members to 13. It had been limited to seven members.

Council also received a copy of an appraisal that sets the value of the contents of the Uniontown Public Library at $4.2 million.

Lawrence Bush, chairman of the library board of directors, gave council members a copy of the appraisal said asked council to consider insuring the library’s contents.

He said library currently has a $500,000 insurance policy covering the contents, but that is probably not enough considering the value of the books, computers and other contents.

The contents and building have a combined value of more than $7 million, Bush said, adding that the city already insures the building.