Ink By The Cartridge

Interest in the ERTC rock crushing and soil remediation issues has been so high, Wally has had to make several runs to the local office supply store to purchase ink cartridges for printing out copies of documents received in response to his recent requests for public records.

To help Wally save ink, I am posting copies of the documents received. This is the "raw" response, i.e., a copy of the packet as received to date.

The first packet was received from the City of Escondido in response to a request made on October 8, 2007 for:
1. All documents (such as correspondence) about request(s) for bid or proposal regarding the grading or recompaction of PPH's ERTC site.
2. Documents (such as correspondence) related to geotechnical analysis of PPH's ERTC site including soil compaction tests, grading fill analysis, core samples, soils reports, etc.
3. Correspondence (such as letters to or from PPH, JRM-ERTC or OSHPD) related to the suitability or feasibility of placing a new hospital on the pad at PPH's ERTC site.

The City produced a stack of documents about 6 inches high. These documents were selected for copying:
City Grading Documents

The second packet was received from PPH in response to a request made on October 5, 2007 to:
1. Inspect: Request(s) for bid (or proposal) regarding the grading/compaction, and/or re-compaction of PPH's ERTC site.
2. Inspect" Bids (or proposals) responsive to request(s) of item 1.
3. Inspect: documents, records, and/or correspondence, related to geotechnical analysis of the PPH's ERTC [site] including soil compaction tests, grading fill analysis, core samples, soils reports, subsoil reports, and the like.
4. Inspect: correspondence with OSHPD, City of Escondido, or JRM-ERTC regarding the suitability of placing a new hospital on PPH's ERTC site.

PPH produced a stack of documents about 8 inches high. After selecting about 110 documents for copying on October 16, 2007, these documents were provided the same day.
PPH Grading Bid Award (4/13/07)
PPH Grading Winning Bid (Pinnick - 4/10/07)
This second set of documents was provided on November 2, 2007:
PPH Grading Documents II
After complaints about missing documents, this third set of documents was provided on November 5, 2007:
PHH Grading Documents III

More documents should be coming! PPH provided a copy of a letter from the City of Escondido to JRM. This letter was not in the documents provided by the City. Wally has asked the City to provide documents between the City and JRM about the grading issues. Also, PPH did not provide any documents to or from OSHPD about the grading issues. Wally has requests those documents from PPH.

McLeod Tower "likely to be reclassified"!

Newsflash!

"Palomar Pomerado is preparing to break ground on a new hospital that was sold to the public as being more economical than trying to upgrade two Palomar Medical Center towers rated as extremely vulnerable to earthquakes. Covert said Wednesday architects have told him the towers also are likely to be reclassified.

Still, he said, "I don't think it will change our time frame in terms of (construction) activity."

See the article at this link:
State to re-assess hospitals' vulnerability to quakes

This means the McLeod tower can remain in operation until 2030. However, PPH is determined to not save the district's taxpayers any money!

PS - Gound has already been broken for the new hospital, as reported in the blog entry of October 15th!

Evolution of PPH Retrofit Costs

The cost for PPH to retrofit its downtown hospital (PMC) has gone from $93 million to $3 million!

The cost of constructing the scaled down hospital in the ERTC has increased by $83 million to $773 million.

Further PPH must generate additional cash from operations over the next 10 years (an increase to $67.7 million each year) in order to fund the current (scaled-back) expansion plans.

See the details in this handout:
Cost Comparison Handout

ERTC Soil Remediation

There are big rocks and boulders buried in the ERTC property acquired by PPH for the new hospital. PPH knew about the buried rocks (with accompanying voids), and the estimated remediation costs, BEFORE it acquired the property.

Here is a handout having a selection from documents received based on requests to PPH about the "soil remediation" issue.
Handout 11/07/2007

Exemplary quotes:
"However, for this rock fill material loosely constrained by smaller gravel and fine sands, there is no known method for predicting its seismic performance, ground motion characteristics or stability under ground shaking. We would be hard pressed to place our engineering seal of approval on the report recommending construction of a hospital on these rock fill materials at the ERTC site."

"The most rational option for remediating the grading conditions so the entire site may be used for hospital construction would be to remove and replace the rock fill with fine fill materials using the ground-up boulders in the process. . . . The option of removing, grinding up the rock materials to fine materials and replacing them in a properly compacted process over the site has been estimated at $30 Million."

"We are concerned that some areas of the site may not conform to the City's rock fill placement requirements as shown in Appendix A in the reports. Prior to approval of the final grading for ERTC, and issuance of a grading permit for PPH, we would like to receive clarification on these issues."

New PPH Board Appointment

The PPH Board has appointed Linda Bailey to fill the position on the Board opened by the resignation of Gary Powers.

"Bailey, who lives just outside Escondido's city limits with her husband, Randy, said she enjoys being active with civic groups."
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/
northcounty/20071103-9999-1mc3pph.html