To the editor:
I read with great interest your front-page article about the development of the land around the new Gateway hospital facility at Interstate 70 and Mt. Comfort Road ("Gateway swings open," July 23, Page A1).
It seems to me that all of the good ideas for the kind of development that Hancock County would want are set out by the hospital.
However, I finally realized that there was a large flaw: Hancock Regional Hospital is the developer! There are at least 12 developers in that area that are competing with the hospital, and any one of them can eat the hospital’s lunch in that business.
Then I recalled an earlier article in the Daily Reporter where the hospital intended to spend $21 million on this development. This is crazy. Our hospital is very good at what they regularly do, which is treat patients. Now, attempting to do something where they have zero experience, they are likely to throw away money that could be better spent on hospital services for our benefit.
Please, hospital, turn this development over to someone who knows how to develop, and let them pick up the expense. Just because you have the right idea on what to develop there does not mean that you have the experience to develop it. You would not let a developer operate on your heart, so why let a hospital develop land?
Cora Snider
McCordsville
