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Posted Jun 30, 2008, 9:30 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Mobile, AL
Posts: 549
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UA gets closer to buying Bryce
Quote:
Committees to study future of hospital
By Adam Jones Staff Writer
Published: Monday, June 30, 2008 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, June 29, 2008 at 11:14 p.m.
TUSCALOOSA | Although there is no timetable and officials are reticent to give specific details, a consensus seems to be emerging that the University of Alabama will ultimately buy its next-door neighbor, Bryce Hospital.
UA President Robert Witt told trustees earlier this month that the university needs to maintain its financial strength in the face of state budget cuts because it has the opportunity to buy the Bryce property in the coming year.
His comments marked the first time he has mentioned publicly to trustees the possibility of buying Bryce. However, in December, trustees approved buying nearly 21 acres of Bryce’s campus for about $1.6 million to turn into a parking lot, and two trustees said it was too early to discuss buying the entire campus, though they said it was a possibility.
Witt’s comment to trustees come after three committees were formed to look at the needs of a new Bryce Hospital, including where to put a new hospital and what to do with the historical sites on the hospital grounds, said John Ziegler, spokesman for the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.
Two of the committees are part of the mental health department, and the third is a joint committee between the department and UA working with a UA-hired consultant to study the future of Bryce.
Still, Ziegler said the completion of an internal long-range strategic plan must be in place before any substantive discussions can take place about selling the 209-acre property.
“[Commissioner John Houston] has always said whatever happens to Bryce will only happen in the context of the system’s transformation plan,” he said.
The planning process has been going on nearly two years, and Houston is close to finishing it, Ziegler said. He expects that before the end of the year, Houston, Witt and Gov. Bob Riley will discuss when the property could be sold.
“No one is stalling, but it’s very complex,” he said. “No one is being driven by pressure to sell to the university.”
Cathy Andreen, UA spokeswoman, said Witt’s comments to the board of trustees are not new information in the ongoing story of UA’s possible purchase of Bryce Hospital, a process that surfaced publicly in January 2006.
His comments about Bryce came amid a host of other longer-term needs, such as replacing old dorms, that Witt said the university has to keep in mind when drafting a budget to meet a short-term dropoff in state money.
“Nothing new has happened,” Andreen said in an e-mail.
Still, the prospect of UA buying the Bryce campus, about one-third the size of the current university campus, becomes more of a certainty with every public statement by state and university leaders.
Ziegler said members of the department and the university are on a joint committee to make recommendations on what should be included in a new hospital. The committee is working with Clark Nexen, a consultant UA hired for $100,000 earlier this year to draft a proposal for the future of Bryce’s patients and staff. The company’s report is not ready, Andreen said.
Another mental health department committee is studying land in Tuscaloosa County owned by the department that could possibly house a new mental hospital, Zielger said. The department owns 75 parcels totaling about 6,000 acres in the county.
“We’re looking at if we do this or do that, where would be the place for Bryce,” Ziegler said.
The department cannot simply relocate a hospital on the biggest available tract of land, since many patients use the city’s public transportation system to get to Bryce facilities or travel from the hospital to work, he said. Plus, the department must consider the impact of a new facility on employees’ commutes, he said.
The third mental health department committee will make recommendations for Bryce’s historical sites once UA takes ownership of the land, such as Peter Bryce’s grave, a patient cemetery and the white main building most visibly associated with the hospital.
Although the building now houses only a few administrative offices, the decaying structure was once considered cutting edge in the nation for mental health facilities when it was built in 1861. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and Witt has said the building would be preserved if UA buys the campus.
Once the committees complete their work, the department and UA can look at financial issues, Ziegler said. An appraisal UA helped pay for two years ago placed the value of the Bryce campus and facilities at $43 million.
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Tuscaloosa News
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