Hospital in Huntley coming closer to a reality
ladkins@dailyherald.com
Centegra Health System has taken one of the final steps in the process toward building a hospital in Huntley.
Last week, Huntley’s village board approved Centegra’s preliminary site plan for a 128-bed hospital after Centegra officials agreed to make specific changes at the village’s request.
Centegra leaders said they will add two more access points to the future hospital, one on Reed Road and another just off Algonquin Road for emergency vehicles, Huntley Trustee Harry Leopold said. That would bring the number of access points to four.
The health system also agreed to install a traffic signal at Faith’s Way, site of what would be the hospital’s main entrance, Leopold said. This concession was made in response to residents living in the subdivision across the street, he said.
Smaller improvements include upgrading some of the existing landscaping on the health campus, putting in new landscaping at the corner of Haligus and Algonquin roads, and to updating the finishes on the building’s planned exterior materials, Leopold said.
Through it all, Centegra, which is McHenry County’s largest employer, has been a good partner and easy to work with, Leopold said.
“They’ve have been very cooperative with us, from all the way back to day one ... and they’ve been responsive to our requests to correct things along the way,” Leopold said. “And we feel as though the addition of the Centegra Hospital-Huntley is going to be a benefit to our entire community, both from the standpoint of the quality of care they present as well as the accessibility.”
The next step is for the revised plan to work its way through the village’s planning and zoning committee and then to village staff before the village board takes a final vote.
The new hospital would be located on Reed and Haligus roads, where Centegra already operates an outpatient health center and a fitness center.
The Illinois Health Facilities Services Review Board approved Centegra’s plans to build the hospital, a venture that is expected to take employ more than 1,000 residents and to accept its first patients in 2016.
“The support we’ve received from the village officials and staff has been amazing,” Centegra Chief Executive Officer Michael Eesley said in a statement. “The community wants and needs this hospital and we couldn’t be happier to deliver it.”