The Atchison Hospital board of directors made it official Monday night. Benedictine College’s campus will take over the hospital’s Second Street property vacated by the opening of a new hospital complex in south Atchison.
The hospital board formally voted to donate three new buildings and a small amount of undeveloped land to Benedictine College. BC administration already has specific plans to use the newly-acquired property for residential and academic purposes, with hopes of having all changes in place by the fall of 2010.
BC president Stephen D. Minnis, who said he’s been negotiating with hospital CEO John Jacobson for over two years, expressed enthusiasm about Benedictine’s first expansion outside of St. Benedict’s Abbey property.
“(Jacobson is) a very visionary guy,” Minnis said. “He basically came two years ago and said ‘I want to build a new hospital south of town, I’d like to transfer the hospital property to the college, and I’d like the college to start a nursing program.’ And look what’s happened. We’re going to get the hospital, and we’ve got our nursing program.”
While it fits in with the direction Jacobson and his fellow health care practitioners envision, both Minnis and Jacobson said any talks between Benedictine and the hospital came well after the college began pursuing a nursing department.
That department will set up shop in the Ramsay Medical Building, the southernmost structure BC has acquired.
North of the Ramsay building are the Cray Manor and the hospital structure itself. While the manor will contain student residency as well as offices, classrooms and labs for three relocated academic departments, the actual hospital is being torn down.
“The hospital itself is very inefficient,” Minnis said. “There’s reasons they’re building a new hospital.”
According to Minnis, the same number of dormitories could be fit into the hospital building’s 150 thousand square feet as fit into St. Scholastica Hall’s 45 thousand square feet.
Minnis said plans for the space vacated by the large hospital building will be left undeveloped for a while, but that future possibilities for that area are bountiful.
BC administration plans to convert the top floor of the three-storied Cray Manor into residence, most likely for sophomore men.
The middle level will house the psychology and sociology departments, and journalism and mass communications will move to the manor’s basement. The decision to relocate these three departments is meant to give the engineering department more space in Westerman Hall and dedicate that building strictly to science fields.
Ensuring the new nursing program doesn’t start out as a physically isolated department is also a priority.
“As we received this property, we had several goals,” said Dr. Kimberly Shankman, dean of the college. “One was to free up space in (Westerman) for engineering. We also wanted to incorporate nursing with the rest of campus.”
The space in St. Benedict’s Hall vacated by the sociology department will be used for faculty offices, Shankman said.
While the transfer agreement signed by the hospital board formally gives the property over to Benedictine on paper, departments won’t be able to move in right away and renovations won’t be able to start all at once.
According to Lorne Archer, the hospital’s chief financial officer, the Ramsay building will be available for the college’s use as soon as the current health clinic that resides there has completely moved out. Two tenants currently occupy the bottom floor of that building, but when their leases are up BC will be able to develop that level as well.
Minnis said the area could possibly be used for the athletic training department.
Archer said the hospital itself should be turned over sometime between April and June after its tenants’ leases are up. 
Negotiations are ongoing as to who will be responsible for the hospital’s demolition. Jacobson had expressed interest in covering the costs of tearing it down, and Archer said he will negotiate with the city to formally buy the structure'. Part of the hospital was renovated over a decade ago with the help of city government bonds, which by Kansas law transferred its property title to the City of Atchison.
Archer said a private clinic building owned by the hospital will remain in its possession for at least five years, but the plan for now is to eventually turn that over to Benedictine as well.
Benedictine administration has expressed is its hope to have all departmental and residential changes in place for the next fall semester.
“It’s a very tight time frame because you have to be able to tear down a hospital,” Minnis said. “You’re always concerned about timing. The good news is we won’t have to deal with weather, because all the renovations are inside.”
Both Minnis and Jacobson are hopeful that transferring the property can operate with as much ease as did the negotiations for its overall acquisition.
“We truly believe this transition is a win...for the college and the community,” Jacobson said. “Discussions with President Minnis and his staff have gone very smoothly…he and I look forward to a very smooth transition of the property over the spring and summer months.”
Circuit Online Editor Melissa Keating and Staff Writer Ellie Waterbury contributed to this report
