Bulletin for December 10, 2015

Posted by Peter Thoem 
on Dec 10, 2015
 
 
It is a source of perpetual puzzlement to me why so many people avoid the front row.  Well, not always, but the president’s table at Rotary is often embarrassingly empty.  I did a bit of research on the topic and author Scott Berkun (No, I hadn’t either) attributes front-row-avoidance to: We like the freedom to be bored, there’s nowhere to hide in the front row; School conditioned us to sit at the back away from teacher’s gaze; We have low confidence in public speakers (save and except big-league stars and celebrities); and The front row feels like part of the show.  This is no place for a prolonged discussion but I do feel we can do better than conspicuously avoiding the company of the club president and/or the guest speaker.  I’m just saying…
 
Guests today were Dimitre Atanassov (a professional violinist and guest of Jim Brindle), Elliot Vine (g/o Dave Beckett), Augustina Perez Saucedo (our inbound exchange student) Ryan Cloutier (not sure, but welcome anyway) Camilla Tzquierdo (our chosen 2016 outbound exchange student); and her mom Priscilla Tzquierdo.
 
Other guests were Jim Matts and Mark Carr who came on behalf of Bereaved Families of Ontario to receive a cheque for their share of July’s partnership Golf Tounament.  The presentation marked the 25th year of the tournament, which has raised and donated close to one-million dollars over its lifetime.
 
 
Johanna Hahn mentioned that Burlington’s twin city, Apeldoorn, features in R.I President Ravi Ravindran’s  column on page 1 of this month’s Rotarian.  A delegation of Apeldoorn residents will be visiting Burlington next October and the organizing committee needs host families.  From personal experience I can say that hosting a Dutch visitor is a good experience.
 
Two more guests: Henri Dekker and Amber Mathews came to give us the latest on the redevelopment of the hospital.  Henri Dekker, Director, Redevelopment and Facilities took the lead.  The last six years have seen much doubt and cynicism that the project was just a Conservative / Liberal/ Bloc feint to get votes / lose votes / build just a parking garage.  Well, it’s starting to look a lot like a hospital.
 
 
Already completed are a parking garage and an administration office building with facilities for Halton McMaster Family Health Centre.  With parking and administration taken care of the new seven- storey patient tower is being pulled out of the ground by two tower cranes.
 
To a greater or lesser degree we all know about the Ontario Building Code (OBC) and how it stands in the way of a quick and dirty job of slapping up a building.  If you were to build an ordinary office building today you’d be looking at construction costs of around $175 -$200 per square foot,  Build a hospital to meet OBC and you’re into $400- $500 per square foot; not a Home Depot special.
 
The milestones ahead are: Enclosure of the new patient tower in spring 2016; New patient tower open and functioning in 2017.  Substantial completion of renovation of the ‘old’ JBH building in 2018 and full completion of the whole shebang in 2019.
 
When it’s all said and one we’ll have: 800 new parking spaces, 172 new single patient beds, 28 ICU beds, 9 Operating Rooms, a new Intensive Care Unit, an expanded Cancer Clinic and a new Emergency Department.
 
 
Sometime next year JBH Foundation plans to hold an open house for all Rotary Clubs at the mock-up of the patient rooms and Operating Rooms.  We look forward to it.
Meanwhile, those two tower cranes are your assurance that something is really happening
 
P Scribe.