Hospice of Washington County making plans for new building

WASHINGTON - The team at Hospice of Washington County is making plans for a new building due to irreparable damage in their current facility.

Katrina Altenhofent, executive director of Hospice of Washington County, said the building, located at 948 East 11th Street in Washington, was built in 1985 for the Department of Transportation (DOT). Hospice of Washington County moved into the building in 2001.

The space, she said, is used as the primary offices for the organization. Administrative staff work out of the upstairs and clinical staff the downstairs portion of the building. Fifteen full time employees are on staff with an additional 10 who are contract employees.

When it comes time for staff meetings, all 25 employees crowd into a small conference room to work, she said. Hospice of Washington County also has a base of about 45 active volunteers who are also in and out of the building periodically.

Altenhofent said the 3,200 square foot building becomes a tight space in the spring when the basement floods. The employees who have offices downstairs have to come upstairs to work and those with offices upstairs have to double up.

This creates an issue with medical and emotional privacy because there is no designated space for a nurse to make a private phone call or employee to meet privately with a family.

'This area of Washington is in a flood plain. It's a low lying area so we constantly have water in the basement,” she said, commenting the neighbors in the home adjacent to their building have a sump pump running every day of the year.

She said the building has two sump pumps and tiling work has been done around the building to try and minimize the problem. This past spring, employees took turns shop vacuuming the basement everyday and collected 46 gallons of water the first time and 21 the second.

'We have tried everything you can to fix it,” she said, explaining the basement walls have been reinforced and the baseboards have holes drilled into them to allow them to dry out. The cinder blocks are separating from the walls and on the outside of the building, there are cracks as well.

A temperature change from the upstairs to the downstairs is prevalent as well, she said. Employees who work downstairs keep heaters and jackets in their office while those upstairs keep fans.

The problems have persisted ever since the organization moved into the building, she said, and even before when the DOT owned the building. Altenhofent said she has looked at a variety of different buildings, but the board has ultimately decided to stay in their location but build a new single level space.

Altenhofent said the organization is currently working with McCreedy-Ruth Construction LLC, of Riverside, to develop a plan for a new building. Once the new building is constructed, the current will be demolished.

She said Hospice of Washington County is hoping to be able to begin the fundraising campaign in late fall. It will be the biggest one they have ever undertaken which leaves her optimistic but nervous, she said.