1972 - 2000
November 8, 1974 was a momentous day for Box Butte General Hospital. These two photos of the groundbreaking ceremony provide different perspectives of the event.
This defeat didn’t make the need go away, with concerned citizens, the Sisters of St. Francis and others going back to the drawing board to try to come up with a feasible plan.
In June of 1972, the same Sister Kathleen announced that after nearly two years of study and deliberation, “Our board of Directors proposes to build a new two-story In-Patient facility at the site of the present hospital,” as well as plans to upgrade parts of St. Joseph. She stated that this was the most economical and feasible alternative for Alliance’s hospital needs. The cost of the proposed project was $1.25-million, including $1-million for the new facility and $250,000 to improve parts of St. Joseph and improve ancillary services. Forty percent, or $500,000, was to come from a “Public Subscription” campaign.
By August of 1972, employees of St. Joseph began meetings to formulate plans for soliciting fellow employees to kick start the fund raising campaign, but it soon became apparent from several in the medical community of that time that the plans to add on to St. Joseph’s was not sufficient, in their view. Eight doctors of the area were in agreement that new hospital would be the only solution in meeting the present and future needs of the area.
By January of 1973, a “new hospital committee” was formed, with Alliance rancher Leonard Peterson named chairman, and banker Edward Knight named Co-chair. The newly formed committee was endorsed by the Box Butte County Commissioners later that month, and soon after the group chose the Leo A. Daly Co. of Omaha as architects for the new hospital. Daly, at that time, was one of the largest architectural firms in the world, having offices in six cities in the United States and one in Hong Kong.
By June of 1973, 62 petitions were being distributed in support of a new hospital, with petitioners hoping to garner at least 1,000 before an early July deadline. Ultimately, 997 county residents signed to have a special election held concerning a new hospital. Only 451 signatures were needed to make the petition drive valid. The commissioners approved holding a special election in August of that year to have county residents say yea or nay to a $1.9-bond issue. A bond issue was needed to help cover the costs for a 50-bed acute care hospital (furnishings not included). The rest of the money was to be raised through fund raising efforts.
The original entrance to the newly completed hospital, taken in 1976. The famous arches, both at the main entrance and the entrance to the hospital grounds were added later.
Channeling Yogi Barra – it was déjà vu … all over again. Different factions of the county community were soon battling it out in the newspapers and on the radio, for or against, with arguments ranging from hardly any taxes being needed to arguments stating that there would be a tax burden that would bury everyone under a mountain of debt. But in the end, progress prevailed.
On Tuesday, August 14, 1973, 60 percent of the county voters approved the $1.9-million bond, by a vote of 2,135 to 1,385. Carrying the day were the four precincts located in Alliance and Lake Precinct (which almost surrounds Alliance). Some of those precincts ended up giving a nod to a new hospital by as much as 70 percent.
By the next month, the county had appointed the hospital’s first Board of Trustees: Leonard Peterson, John Cover, Dr. Robert Morgan, Mrs. Alan Curtiss and Dr. Robert Stout, with Mr. Peterson as chairman and Mr. Cover as vice-chairman.
Soon after, the Sisters of St. Francis reconfirmed their commitment to have St. Joseph Hospital provide acute medical care until the new hospital was built.
By December of 1973, the original estimate of $1.9-million proved to be too little due to inflation and increases in building material costs. An additional $600,000 (revised later to $700,000) was determined to be needed, and a fund drive was officially started in January of 1974. It was kicked off the next month by the announcement of a $50,000 donation from the Alliance Scottish Rites of Bodies, in memory of Dr. Charles E. Slagle. By October of 1974, $586,468.26 was raised through donations, with the shortfall easily made up with an additional $250,000 in Hill-Burton funds.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the new hospital was conducted on Friday, November 8, 1974. Contractor for the project was Rhoads Construction Company of Goodland, KS, which was awarded the contract to building the hospital after posting a bid of $2.99-million. Total funds on hand when the bid was approved were: $1,902,493 from the sale of bonds, $180,000 from interest income, and $529,921 from the fund drive (later revised to the figure mentioned in the previous paragraph). The hospital opened its doors for business on October 1, 1976.
