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Up on the roof: That’s where Beebe Medical Center administrators and planners are now proposing construction of the hospital’s helicopter landing pad.
Beebe President and CEO Jeffrey Fried, in a special meeting of Lewes Mayor and Council at Lewes City Hall Aug. 31, detailed plans to engineer the rooftop and structure of the $25 million Rollins Building addition to accommodate helicopters used to airlift trauma patients to the facility’s emergency room.
The helipad is also used to transport patients to other medical facilities for treatment at regional hospitals.
The helipad would be on the rooftop of the third story of the Rollins addition about 38 feet above ground level.
Explaining to a crowd that filled the council chambers to overflowing, Fried said that before settling on the rooftop concept, hospital planners also reexamined options they had considered earlier.
Those included rooftop landings on the north end of the Lynch wing and modifications to a fire lane that would have allowed landings within a few feet of the helipad’s existing location.
Also considered was the construction of an elevated helipad adjacent to Market Street that would have used a skywalk to link it to the hospital.
Fried said hospital planners also met with Delaware Department of Transportation engineers and an aviation-engineering consultant with Federal Aviation Administration experience for their advice.
He said the aviation consultant recommended the Rollins Building rooftop helipad as the best and safest of any of the locations under consideration.
Fried said architects and engineers came up with a way to cut the cost of the rooftop helipad in half – from $4 million to $2 million.
He said the cost reduction was the result of design changes that did not place any of the existing structure beneath the helipad as an earlier design had done.
Hospital administrators went back to the planning table last month after nearby residents voiced opposition to a proposed ground-based helipad in an area adjacent to West Fourth Street and Savannah Road.
The Lewes Planning Commission had earlier recommended the Mayor and Council approve the West Fourth Street site.
But following Beebe’s rooftop proposal, the council voted against the Planning Commission’s recommendation. Councilman Ted Becker recused himself from the vote because he serves on the Beebe Foundation board of directors. Councilwoman Stephanie Tsantes was absent from the meeting.
Beebe’s rooftop helipad request will now go before the Planning Commission and then back to the Mayor and Council for consideration.
Although there didn’t appear to be jubilance about Beebe’s plans from the more than 50 residents attending the meeting, there also was no passionate opposition.
Chestnut Street resident John Campanelli said Beebe’s rooftop proposal isn’t without its problems.
“I guess a half a pie is better than no pie at all. I would liked to have had the rooftop helipad site approachable from 360 degrees,” Campanelli said.
An adjacent portion of existing structure at the hospital requires helicopter landing approaches from one direction.
Following Beebe’s presentation, Mayor Jim Ford said, “Whatever the result of this is, someone won’t be happy.”
Ford said Beebe is now, and would continue to be, valuable to the community. Fried said the hospital remains committed to the community and to maintaining its Savannah Road presence.
“There really is room for us to continue to grow here,” Fried said.
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