If Shelburne resident Ken Topping is correct, community interest in the former Shelburne hospital, or Shelburne Campus of Headwaters Health Care Centre, has waned, and the interest now is moving forward with a health and care centre (HCC) and recruitment of doctors.

Wes Keller “The building was a February issue,” he said at a Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) task force meeting on Monday afternoon. His comment followed the meeting’s outline of projected costs of improvements.

The meeting had been told that it would cost a bit more than $1 million plus a renovation cost ranging to $250 a square foot to bring the old hospital up to contemporary hospital and Building Code standards.

In a later interview, John Stevens of Stantec Architecture said the studies were done “irrespective of any specific use.” He didn’t comment on what costs might be involved in moving some services from the Mel Lloyd Centre to the hospital to make room for the HCC there, except to say that “wherever moves are contemplated there are costs,” even if the move is to a new building.

But three Dufferin County mayors – Ed Crewson of Shelburne, John Oosterhof of East Luther Grand Valley and county warden Allen Taylor of East Garafraxa – are of the opinion that the building could be grandfathered for a continuing medically related or at least institutional use, provided that such a thing happens without declaring the building vacant.

Warden Taylor will entertain a motion at County Council on Sept. 13 that the County should seek ownership of the building. He said Tuesday this might be a bit of “thinking with the heart,” but he and others have said in the past that the county could use the former hospital’s space to accommodate some of the waiting list for beds at Dufferin Oaks.

If the proposed HCC is to open at the county-owned Mel Lloyd Centre, it would require some of the space now occupied by other things there, things that Mayor Crewson says could be housed at the hospital without major modifications.

As one example, the mayor cited the Early Childhood Education centre. Although such is not medically related, it would be an institutional use and, he believed, would qualify for grandfathering.

According to a Stantec Architectural report, uses of that nature would not require modifications of the building and would not incur the square footage costs. If the building should be grandfathered, not all of the VFA-identified deficiencies would need to be remedied. In a brief conversation, Margot Hornseth mentioned only the roof repairs.

Shelburne is currently the fastest growing community community in Dufferin. According to planning consultant Steve Wever, the population population has ballooned to 5,782 from 3,500 since 2003. It’s not possible to know what percentage of the original population still views the hospital as symbolic in some way.

But it is a symbol of local initiative and community involvement as well as a 29,000 square foot, structurally sound building .

Upon amalgamation, the 1960s structure was given to the new corporation on the understanding that Shelburne would get an after-hours clinic. This never happened. Except for X-ray services, the ground floor was vacated a couple of years ago – and then chronic care was removed two months ago.

Until a couple of years ago, there was a reception area inside the main entrance and two or more doctors had been using examining rooms on the main floor. I know this, as I received a minor treatment there.

As well, until relatively recently one or more physicians practised at the westside entrance near the X-ray facility.

All of this is to say that the building is not the crumbling mess that the appraisals might imply. Yet it might doubtful whether it would qualify for an investment that could run easily to $5 million or more, based on the estimates and depending on its future use.

Headwaters Health Care Centre has not stated what its plans would be for the building. But the County could make good use of it without incurring any great costs. And it could do so while freeing up space for the HCC and three additional doctors at the Mel Lloyd Centre.

I agree with Mayor Crewson, who said the County would be doing Headwaters a favour by taking the former hospital off its hands.

And, keeping in mind that the County was the largest contributor to the hospital’s construction (along with Shelburne and the surrounding townships), perhaps the County should be considered the rightful owner.

I’ll resist saying that the return of the property to the County and the area municipalities would atone for the broken promise of a clinic.

Instead, I’ll say that a transfer of the building in exchange for HCC space at Mel Lloyd would be a reasonable exchange.