BY PAUL MITCHELL
North Country This Week

POTSDAM – A permanent piece of steel affixed with dozens of signatures will become a permanent fixture of the more than $71 million expansion of the Canton-Potsdam Hospital Regional Care Pavilion off Cottage Street.

On Monday, representatives from St. Lawrence Health, Rochester Regional Health and the community gathered to take part in a beam signing ceremony.

The milestone is commemorated by painting the beam white and having the owners, dignitaries, the steel erection crew, construction team and designers, sign the beam for posterity.

The first four to sign the beam and delivered brief remarks were Donna McGregor, St. Lawrence Health and Canton-Potsdam Hospital President; Edward Mucenski, St. Lawrence Health Board Chair; Richard “Chip” Davis, PhD, Rochester Regional Health Chief Executive Officer; and David Riedman, Rochester Regional Health Board Chair.

McGregor noted it was eight months ago when the hospital broke ground on the project.

“How exciting it is to be here with you all to celebrate the true cornerstone of the project,” she stated. “We will have a larger, more modern and functional medical facility.”

“This a tremendous milestone event. We are thrilled to have St. Lawrence Health a part of Rochester Regional Health,” said Davis.

Mucenski applauded the hospital project.

“This is a really great day and the first addition in a long time coming,” he stated. “Although we’ve seen growth, this is one of our grandest projects. We are well on our way to addressing a long overdue improvement of medical care.”

The expansion will add an extra 108,000 square feet to the existing Canton-Potsdam Hospital, increase the emergency room beds to 28 from 17, increase the number of surgical and medical beds for patients from 63 to 78 and 60 new private patient rooms that will be 28 percent larger than existing semi-private rooms in the current hospital building.

Completion of the project is expected to be in 2025.