SITE WORK PROGRESSING FOR CONSTRUCTION NEAR HOSPITAL

Drive west along Gordonville Road and you can't help but notice all the building site work -- the upturned earth where grass once grew.

At St. Francis Medical Center, site work continues in preparation for construction of a new medical office building and parking garage. Also, a concrete, two-lane road is being built around the outer perimeter of the property.

Across Gordonville Road to the south, Druco Inc. has razed an old farm house and begun site work for construction of a 5,000-square-foot Color Tile store.

The carpet-and-tile store is scheduled to be completed by July, Druco superintendent Chris Nisbet said. Entrance to the property will be from Route K.

Construction of a 100,000-square-foot, multistory medical office building and an adjacent garage east of the hospital is expected to get under way by summer, said Rick Essner, director of environmental engineering at St. Francis.

Both the medical building and the garage are slated for completion in 1996.

The medical office building will be situated about 100 feet east of the hospital's emergency room entrance on a five-acre tract.

The three-level garage will accommodate 650 cars. Kiefner Brothers Inc. of Cape Girardeau is the contractor.

Essner said the garage will replace parking that is being eliminated for construction of the medical building. It will also provide additional parking.

"We will be increasing parking overall," Essner said. "It should take care of both existing needs and also for the office building."