Serving The Willistons, Albertson, Herricks, Mineola, Roslyn Heights, and Searingtown
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Friday, January 20, 2017
Vol. 66, No. 3
*8,'( 72
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Winthrop plans $100M expansion Calls for new parking lot, additions to emergency, maternity wings BY N O A H M A N S K A R Winthrop-University Hospital is planning a multimillion-dollar expansion of its downtown Mineola campus as demand for many of its services continues to grow, hospital oďŹƒcials said last week. The hospital plans to start work as early as this spring on additions to its emergency room and maternity wing, and will tear down nine nearby houses it owns to make way for a 200-space parking lot, John Collins, the president and CEO, said. The $99.5 million worth of work has become necessary as the hospital has seen a signiďŹ cant uptick in the past several years as the population ages, Collins said. Emergency room visits, for example, increased to about 75,000 in 2016 from 66,000 in 2010. Ambulatory surgery operations, in which patients undergo surgery and go home the same day, increased to 25,000 from 18,000 in
the same period. “This is something that’s difďŹ cult to deal with, is all of the volume,â€? Collins said during a presentation to about 40 Mineola residents last Wednesday. The $85 million maternity wing expansion would add two oors to the existing facility, one with private rooms for new mothers and another with 24 medical and surgical beds. Adding 18 beds to the emergency room for $12.5 million would help reduce overcrowding in a facility originally built for about 40,000 annual visits, Collins said. The $2 million expansion of the parking lot at First Street and Fleet Place would replace six homes on Fleet Place and three on DeMott Street that house medical interns and residents working at the hospital, Collins said. The lot would help ease parking congestion for the hospital’s Continued on Page 70
PHOTO FROM GIANNA SEE VIA YOUTUBE
An Idol’s Homecoming Herricks High School graduate Michael Linden performed at the school’s 13th annual “Herricks Idol� music competition on Jan. 6. See story on page 23.
W.P. dentist reopens office more than 2 years after fire stroyed four buildings housing six establishments near the intersection with Goodrich Street. But the hole is a little smallOne of Williston Park’s business districts along Willis er now, with Dr. Joseph LocurAvenue has had a hole since to’s newly rebuilt dental oďŹƒce July 2014, when a huge ďŹ re de- set to open Thursday at 623
BY N O A H MANSKAR
Willis Ave. Two and a half years later, Locurto, a Manhasset resident, said he’s happy to be back in the spot where he ďŹ rst opened his Williston Park practice in 1995. Continued on Page 70
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