A press conference that would have protested the move of UAB Medical West to Hoover became a celebration as the hospital announced plans to build on property it owns in McCalla.
“UAB Medical West has been at its present site since 1964, 54 years,” Bessemer Mayor Kenneth Gulley said. “If this site is no longer a viable option for the hospital, I pledge to work with Jefferson County and UAB Medical West to build a new, state-of-the-art facility as long as we maintain the best quality healthcare for the western area and remain in the corporate city limits of Bessemer.”
Keith Pennington, CEO and president of Medical West, said the hospital bought land off Interstate 459 at Exit 1 in 2017. Shortly thereafter, Hoover approached the hospital about reconsidering its relocation.
“After a lengthy process of evaluating both sites, we feel that our original plans are the best plans for Medical West and our communities,” he said. “We have decided our location.”
While Pennington said there have been no discussions about Bessemer annexing the unincorporated site, Gulley said he feels that move is in the best interest of all concerned.
“Obviously for something of this magnitude, you’re going to need city services in order to make it work,” he said. “When you start talking about police and fire, when you start talking about insurance and things of that nature, a hospital has to be in a municipality.”
The 35- to 40-acre property is contiguous to Bessemer and lies on both sides of Bell Hill Road with its eastern border being near Pocahontas Road.
“We’re in the infancy stage right now,” Gulley said of talks with Medical West.
Pennington said the decision to build at Exit 1 considered several factors, including the locations of other UAB medical facilities, including those at Hueytown, Vance and Medical West Tannehill Health Center.
“Really when you look at the map,” the CEO said, “Exit 1 really puts you right in the center of our market.”
The Rev. Tommie L. Lewis, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, Pratt City, spoke on behalf of clergy who were invited to the press conference. He said he’s long been an advocate for UAB as a result of his wife’s illness.
“I didn’t want to fall out of love with UAB,” he said. “If they were going to take our hospital and put it somewhere else, then we’d have to put our marching shoes on. I don’t have to tell you the strength that can be garnered from protests and marching.
“If the children of Israel could march through the wilderness to get to the promised land, Mister Mayor, we were ready to march to keep our hospital in our promised land.”
Midfield Mayor Gary Richardson said he strongly believes that if the hospital had gone through with its move to Hoover, it would have set relations between local governments back about 10 years or more.
“This is one of the serious issues of poaching,” he said. “We cannot continue this old thing of those who have get more and those who have less don’t get less.”
Contacted later, Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens said the county could provide help with the hospital’s move, provided the property is unincorporated.
“But if it is annexed into the city before that property is built upon, I think our hands would be tied in a very similar situation (by which) they were tied with the city of Hoover,” he said. “The entire purpose of incentives is for job creation. It would be very, very difficult to incentivize someone to move within the corporate city limits of any given municipality or move from one municipality to the other. In unincorporated Jefferson County, we’re the only resource that they have for that so it makes it entirely different.”
(Courtesy of Alabama NewsCenter)
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