OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Saunsanie Kitchko, left, and John Ramos pose on land they own in the town of Dunkirk. They want to lease the land for a new Brooks-TLC Hospital System.

John Ramos and Saunsanie Kitchko want the Brooks-TLC Hospital System to take another look at their properties for a new facility.

There’s a catch, though: they want to lease the land, not sell it.

It’s 39.5 acres bordered by the Thruway, the railroad tracks next to Main Street Extension, and Bennett Road Extension West off Route 60. The father and daughter suggested the land in 2016, when Brooks started describing its plans for a new hospital, but got turned down.

Ramos and Kitchko say the neighborhood has seen significant infrastructure improvements since 2016, and still offers fewer access challenges than the site Brooks wound up choosing, a grape field off Route 20 near Fredonia Central School.

They say there are ample water, electric, sewage and gas connections. Since 2016, high-speed broadband has gone in and significant water and sewer line upgrades were made.

Kitchko and Ramos say they are reaching out on their own to government officials and the media because town of Dunkirk officials have done little to lobby for them. Ramos says Dunkirk Town Supervisor Richard Purol decided not to back any particular property for the new hospital and “that’s when we started reaching out on our own.”

“We didn’t submit any (sites), but I know they looked at a couple different sites on Bennett Road. That is all being handled by realtors, we didn’t propose anything,” Purol told the OBSERVER back in October 2016.

“There’s some vacant land in the town there on Bennett Road and it would make sense, it’s a nice area because it’s close to the Thruway and you’ve got (Alstar) Ambulance right down the street.

“Did we push any sites? No, we did not,” Purol continued. “They’re not ours to push. I can tell them there’s vacant land here and vacant land there, like around JCC (North), that land’s been vacant for quite a while, but part of it’s been sold already in the back of JCC. So, I don’t know how much is going to be back there for them because it’s not one contiguous property.”

Kitchko says, “It’s not that we haven’t been interested. We really haven’t been contacted, or represented, by the people that should.”

She and her father say the main concerns of the state and Brooks-TLC about the site involve access. Ramos doesn’t get that — he advocates an emergency exit from the Thruway which borders the property, and the construction of a ramp down from Route 60. With that, there would be wonderful access, he says.

“I don’t understand their logic. The state is moving one building because of lack of infrastructure,” referring to the new State Police barracks getting erected on Main Street Extension, across from his property. “But they’re going to build a complex of buildings in a field?”

“We’ve gotten pushed back on infrastructure in the past — now we have the best infrastructure,” says Kitchko.

There is an old auto garage, closed for about 15 years, on the land. Kitchko, who lives full-time in Pennsylvania but grew up in Dunkirk, also has a summer home there. Ramos owns the plot with the auto garage and Kitchko owns the neighboring parcel with the house. They are willing to demolish the buildings if necessary.

While they stressed that the land is for lease, not for sale, that could be viable for Brooks-TLC with what is known as a “ground lease.” Common in the medical industry, ground leaseholders own the buildings they erect on a property, but not the land underneath them. The leaseholders often have a contractual option to buy the land eventually.

Ramos and Kitchko don’t care much about the legalities right now — they just want their property to be noted as an option.

“We’d love to see the hospital stay in Dunkirk, and be a solution for the community,” Kitchko says.

Ramos says, “Initially, they talked about a location that would bring SUNY Fredonia, Dunkirk and Fredonia together. This is a better location for that than the outskirts of Fredonia.”