More than 100 people showed up for the last rally in the fall for the release of $71 million in funding for Brooks-TLC.

No news from New York state is beginning to become unnerving when it comes to the Brooks-TLC Hospital System’s future and potential new facility in northern Chautauqua County.

Later this month, health-care union leaders from across the region are hoping to drum up community support when a community forum will take place regarding the issue. That event is being scheduled on Tuesday, March 19, in the Northern Chautauqua Catholic School at 336 Washington Ave. in Dunkirk from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. to discuss the ongoing delays to construct the new hospital in Fredonia.

Hospital workers represented by the New York State Nurses Association and 1199 Service Employees International Union, concerned citizens, elected leaders and members of the hospital administration are expected to attend.

According to a news release issued Thursday, “Brooks Memorial Hospital is the only health-care facility available in northern Chautauqua County. The dedicated healthcare workers at Brooks continue to provide care in an aging and outdated facility in Dunkirk. The community has been waiting for seven-plus years for the New York State Department of Health to release previously approved funds to construct a new modernized hospital.”

Hospital officials had hoped the release of funds would come during Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address or her budget presentation earlier this year. That did not happen — and the waiting game continues.

Adding to the dilemma is the short window of a construction season. With March already here, it appears another summer could come and go without a hospital build beginning.

In 2016 and 2017, $71 million was set aside to build what is a micro hospital and would be located at the former Cornell Cooperative Extension site on Route 20, just west of the roundabout at Route 60. Brooks-TLC announced last June it had finalized the purchase of the land, but the big state funding dollars remain out of reach.

Last October, hospital workers held a community rally in front of the hospital to call on the state Department of Health to release funding. That event also included union leaders as well as community leaders from the city, village and county.

Following that gathering, the state Health Department appeared to be in no hurry to get the project started. “Gov. Kathy Hochul is committed to ensuring that every New Yorker has access to essential health services where and when they need it most, and the Department of Health continues to work closely with local stakeholders, Brooks Memorial Hospital leadership and other healthcare providers in Chautauqua County,” noted the statement from a department spokeswoman that offers no indication of a new hospital being part of the picture.

Though the state continues to be inconsistent in its message, a study by a national firm with a devotion to rural and community health care noted a “clear, demonstrable need for a new Brooks-TLC hospital” in a recent report provided to the institution’s board of directors and New York state. In its study, Stroudwater presented a number of benefits while noting serious concerns if a new facility is not built in Fredonia.

“Without an acute care hospital the nearly 40,000 people in our region who currently rely on Brooks Hospital for acute care needs will be displaced to distant regional hospitals with uncertain capacity to admit them for critical health-care needs,” says the report by Stroudwater. The respected agency works with hundreds of rural and community hospitals to create solutions while supporting them in providing the best care in their communities for the long haul.

Plans for the new hospital that would replace the outdated facility at 529 Central Ave. in Dunkirk call for emergency services with 12 bays, 15 medical and surgical beds, four surgical suites and two rooms for procedure, imaging with CT scans, MRI and ultrasound, stat lab services, a pharmacy, support services and a helipad.