OBSERVER Photo The former Cornell Cooperative Extension location on East Main Street in Fredonia is where the new Brooks could go.

Six years ago this week, northern Chautauqua County received blockbuster news: a new structure would be built to replace the current Brooks Memorial Hospital in Dunkirk. For starters, New York state was awarding the provider with $57 million to help transform and improve the delivery of health care in Western New York.

As of today — and after another $13 million of state funding was added to the project in later years– nothing has changed in regard to the physical operations on Central Avenue in the city. Brooks-TLC Hospital System does have a location lined up to build a facility at the former Cornell Cooperative Extenstion location in Fredonia just west of the roundabout on East Main Street, but the project seems to have become lost in the COVID-19 pandemic and with the revolving door of Albany.

Since that $70 million in state funding was announced, there has been major turnover in the state Health Department as well as the governor’s office as Andrew Cuomo resigned and gave way to Western New York native Kathy Hochul. Where does that leave the new build?

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Brooks

There was some insight offered on Wednesday evening regarding the project in the State of the County address in Mayville. Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel noted he has reached out to Hochul asking for assurances on the funding for a new Brooks-TLC facility. He said the plan for a new building in Fredonia was “slowed, if not halted” by COVID-19 and its constellation of issues.

As health-care has been stressed over the last 24 months due to rising admissions due to COVID-19, Brooks-TLC administrators have remained guardedly optimistic about the new building. “The hospital continues to work on its transformation plan to ensure a sustainable health system for the future,” said Mary E. LaRowe, Brooks-TLC president and chief executive officer in previous interviews. “While our primary focus has been responding to the COVID pandemic, the hospital has sought and obtained an extension on approvals required by the village of Fredonia Planning Board. We will continue to work with local community leaders, health care providers and New York state to ensure access to essential health services for the community is maintained.”

Still, there is an anxiety from some in the community regarding what will happen to both the current location if the build does happen. The one-block building and parking lot would likely become desolate for at least some time.

In planning the new site, administrators have noted the structure will be a significant downsize from the current location with only 29 beds. The focus also will shift to the current mode of health care: out-patient procedures.

A state Health Department official on Friday expressed continued support for the project. “To ensure that access to essential health services for the community is maintained, we continue to work with the leadership of Brooks Memorial and other health-care providers, as our commitment to the community has not changed,” said Jeffrey Hammond, department spokesman.

In the meantime, New York state has been putting its money where its mouth is subsidizing operations to the tune of more than $22 million from 2017 to 2019 at Brooks. In 2020, the Lakeshore Hospital site in Irving was closed in an attempt to reduce the expenses for the operation, which noted a deficit of more than $12 million for 2019.

Financials for 2020, which are not yet available, could be just as staggering. A report by the Empire Center earlier this month found that Western New York hospitals lost a combined $224 million while health-care facilities in every other region reporting surpluses in operations. Erie County Medical Center was one of the largest losers with a deficit of $79 million. Kaleida Health, which is a network of hospitals, reported losses of more than $100 million as well.

Brooks-TLC continues to work with Kaleida for administrative and service with its technology systems. It also is partnering in the planning of the new campus.

Seventy-two months later, however, there are no shovels in the ground.