SAGINAW TWP. - HealthSource Saginaw, construction manager Spence Brothers, its subcontractors and the building trades have embarked on Phase 1 of a $35 million building replacement and improvement project for HSS.

Ground was broken last October on the renovated health care facility, which will have a bank, beauty shops, drug store, clothing shop, ice cream parlor, gift shop and post office, along with expanded parking. The project will demolish 180,000 square-feet of the existing structure and rebuild 160,000 square-feet of space that will feature larger rooms for residents.

"We're due for completion in the summer of 2008," said Bob Bison, project manager for Spence Brothers. "We're doing well, we're on schedule, and we have very good people and subcontractors on the project."

Originally known as Saginaw County Hospital, HealthSource Saginaw was established by county officials in 1930 as a tuberculosis sanitarium. In 1991, it became a Municipal Health Facility Organization and qualified for non-profit status.

HealthSource employes 400 and has 319 inpatient beds. HSS is the only provider of adolescent psychiatric inpatient and chemical dependency detox services in Saginaw County.

Bison said only 20-25 percent of the existing building on Hospital Road would be retained in the new design. The rest will be demolished. The building is a victim of having too many small patient rooms and a lack of infrastructure for making upgrades.

"It's an old building and it's difficult to incorporate new services and technologies into it," Bison said. The new building will be on a single level and include a better design, including allowing in more sunlight.

Saginaw County voters narrowly approved a 25-year, 0.49 mill tax request for the project in August that will provide the funds to rebuild and renovate the 74-year-old facility.

"We're working around an operating hospital, so it's a dynamic situation all the time," Bison said. "We take a lot of steps to work carefully so we keep the environment safe for construction workers, patients and hospital personnel."

To highlight the need for the new building, before construction started last June, a large section of the building's brick façade collapsed through the ceiling of a one-story structure on the campus, narrowly missing two people.

A CHECK VALVE for a gas meter gets the attention of Dave Miller of Plumbers and Steam Fitters Local 85, working for John E. Green.

WORKING ON A bank of chiller controls at the HealthSource Saginaw project is Jason Jones of IBEW Local 948, working for Roth Electric.