Earlier on June 3rd, Governor Kathy Hochul along with hospital leadership, community stakeholders and organized labor announced an agreement with Kaleida Health and Brooks-TLC Health Systems to build a new hospital in the Village of Fredonia in Chautauqua County. Governor Hochul’s administration has been working with Kaleida Health on terms of an agreement and plan to move forward with construction of the new hospital replacing the Brooks-TLC in the City of Dunkirk. On June 3rd’s announcement will be enabled by the newly established Health Care Safety Net Transformation Program included by the Governor in this year's Budget to encourage partnerships that improve the resilience of safety-net institutions by providing strategic capital and operating support, in addition to required regulatory flexibility. The project will be supported by $74 million from the State that was previously committed. Kaleida and Brooks-TLC will submit a revised Certificate of Need application to the Department of Health (DOH) which will expedite approval. The new hospital is expected to open within 3 years of approval.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Love the energy in this room. My gosh. Thank you, everyone. Please take your seats. Let's start with a warm round of applause for the real heroes: the people standing behind me and in front of me who are members of our unions, 1199 SEIU and NYSNA, the nurses. Also, our administrators, the frontline workers, the medical professionals —all the people who never gave up on the possibility. Who wrote letters and rallied and fought so hard, I heard you. I heard you loud and clear.

And as you know, I'm from just up the road in Hamburg, right? So, you know I know Brooks Hospital. I didn't need to find this one on a map and have someone show it to me. I know how critical it is to have health care in this community. I know it. I know everything about this community. It is part of who I am. I just had lunch at Aunt Millie's Diner. So, there you go. Does she not have the best pastries you've ever seen in your life? I digress. That's all right. The corn chowder was amazing today.

But all of you have worked so hard to help make reality come true. One step closer to modernizing an essential healthcare system for the people who live here and those who will move here, now that we have the assurances that there will be high quality health care for all the future workers as well. That's what this is all about.

City of Dunkirk, Mayor Wdowiasz — I want to thank you for working so hard to get this over the finish line. We have our Village of Fredonia Mayor; Michael Ferguson has joined us. I also want to give a shout out to Willie Rosas, who was championing this when he was mayor as well. I heard a lot from Willie too. No doubt about it.

Our County Executive, PJ Wendel. Thank you. We've been through a lot together. I thank you for your leadership. President of the Western New York Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, Peter DeJesus. I want to thank him for coming.

And the knight in shining armor who's coming in from Kaleida Health, Don Boyd. Thank you very much for all you're doing there. And one of my hometown commissioners — Commissioner of Civil Service, Timothy Hogues. If you want a job in Civil Service, catch him on the way out. Our host, SUNY Fredonia President, Stephen Kolison. I want to thank him for being here as well — Stephen.

My niece Jennifer went here, so I used to, you know — “Aunt Kathy, can you come visit me” so I'd bring her homemade chocolate chip cookies. So, I know this campus well. But before I get to the big news — don't know if there's a lot of suspense or not — but I want to just give a recap of how we got here today.

You know, long before I became Governor, there was a commitment to this community of $74 million to replace the aging facility in Dunkirk. That was a promise that was made to this community. But for years, it's been in limbo. Nobody could identify a fiscally solvent operating model. It seemed too hard.

But you know what? When something's hard, we say, “Bring it on.” I mean, that's what you do when you’re a part of this community. Easy for everybody else. We tackle hard here. And when I came into office, we said, “We have to find a sustainable path. Something has to work. It can't be that hard.” And I as Governor, will not do as has been done in the past — to just kick this down the road and say, “It's too much, let somebody else deal with it.”

Because that is what has held back our communities for too long. I want long term solutions that are built to last and to bottom line ensure that everybody, no matter where you live — In the biggest cities, our smaller communities, our rural areas — that you have access to good quality health care. It's a basic human right. That is a basic human right.

I know the challenges coming from here. When I was in Congress, I represented a lot of rural communities as well. I understood the challenges that are facing our more rural areas. Lower reimbursements and patient volumes, the cost of drugs and equipment, staffing shortages — and then you throw on top of all that COVID, when a lot of people put their heart and soul into helping patients and my God, we'll never have enough volume of gratitude to tell them thank you for being there, thank you for showing up. Thank you for leaving the safety of your own homes and being there for our family. You did it and we will never, ever forget that. Thank you.

But between 2010 and 2021, 136 rural hospitals shut their doors. Lakeshore Hospital, one of the more recent casualties. Leaving Brooks as Northern Chautauqua County's only community hospital. No community should have a healthcare desert. Not now, not ever. You should not have a situation where you have to drive 45 minutes to get to the nearest emergency room.

If you're a mom and something happens to your child, my little girl — I was at a town board meeting — and she got hit by a car. She was okay, but that's the call you don't want to get. And we were just minutes from a hospital. I didn't have to worry about that. But something happens to your child out here, that's as scary as it gets.

You should not have to endure that anxiety to save a life of someone you love. And it's about the services, it's about the community, it's also about the workers, as I mentioned. 300 frontline healthcare workers and support staff. Now 1199 SEIU and NYSNA, you have done the work. So, we should say to you, we'll make sure you have work to do going forward. That's our commitment to you. We'll make sure you have the jobs. You love this community. Your families are here. This is where you want to stay. So yes, we know what you did to help others. We'll keep the jobs. We'll keep you here. And I'm just telling you right now, we worked hard to get this done.

So that's why today I'm announcing that Brooks-TLC Health Systems and Kaleida Health have finalized a partnership that will finally unlock the $74 million and clear the path – clear the path to build this hospital. Let's build this hospital. Build this hospital. Build this hospital. Let's get it done. We can do this. We can do this. So how do we make the magic happen?

Well, when you hear about budgets and your eyes start to glaze over, this is part of our Budget this year. We have a new safety net transformation program. We fought to get it in this year's Budget, and it encourages partnerships like this. They make all the sense in the world. To save this community, save the workers, the jobs, provide the health care, but also to link arms with the premier health care institution that has the caliber of service, the professionals, the doctors, the staff elsewhere that will support what you need here. That's the beauty and genius of this marriage with Kaleida. Now, I know this is going to be a good marriage. I know a lot about marriage. I'm hitting 40 years this summer, so I see a good marriage. This is the makings of a good marriage.

We're going to support through capital, operating dollars and regulatory flexibility. And about marriage, what comes next after marriage, sometimes you become a parent. Kaleida will become the parent and work with Brooks to have a plan and construct and eventually operate the hospital. So, we'll have revised project application. DOH is listening to me right now. We're going to expedite the review very quickly. Let's get it done. And once they get the hospital, it'll be done within the next three years. And so, I'm going to say three years is great – two and a half sounds better.

See where I'm going with this? Alright. They told me it would take four years for Buffalo Bill Stadium; I said you have two. So, I'm just saying, I like things to happen quickly and Kaleida is a fantastic partner. And there's going to be more projects like this around the region, around the state, because this newly enacted Safety Net Transformation program wants this to happen. We don't want any more added on to the 136 hospitals that have already closed. It doesn't have to be, and that's why this model will work. Because right now, a lot of the beds are vacant, right? But you still have to be ready for that person who comes in who needs to take a bed. They're on financial life support because there aren't people in the beds.

So, we'll replace the outdated aging facility with a more modern, welcoming, efficient hospital. We'll rein in the cost by doing that. It will suit the needs of the community. It will have twelve bays, fifteen medical and surgical beds, four surgical suites, two procedure rooms and a helipad. Because if you need to go elsewhere, you're going to get there quickly. Now our New York State thruway goes very smoothly. I just drove down from Buffalo, but it's a lot faster in the air. You can go to Oishei Children's Hospital if you need that kind of care. You can go to our hospitals in minutes with this helipad.

So, this way, Brooks joins the largest health care network in Western New York, the largest, with the most services. And if someone needs specialty care, as I said, they can go to Buffalo General. They can go to Children's Hospital. And the transfer will be absolutely seamless.

So, a better Brooks Hospital is also so critical to what's happening here in Chautauqua County. You know I love this County. When I lived in Hamburg, we used to think we were going on vacation. We went down to Chautauqua County. You go to Aunt Millie's, you go down to Mayville, you go down to Chautauqua Institution. You rent a little boat. Now you go to the Comedy Center. You work your way down. This is the beauty of the charming little communities. And the vineyards that smell so fantastic. The largest continuous concord grape region in the world. Do you know that? I know more crazy things about this county than anybody. I love it here.

And so, what this says is other economic development projects will feed into this. So, let me tell you what I mean.

We've just invested — the Mayor knows this — $10 million in our Downtown Revitalization Initiative. Nine projects.

So, nine of these projects for almost $10 million will stimulate private investment, right? Revitalize the downtown waterfront district. And I'm a boater and I have docked overnight sleeping right there. You just didn't know it was me, did you? I go all over this state in disguise — $2 million to help the marina and also the Chadwick Bay Marina.

And investing in Workforce Development Training Center — $2.2 million. Affordable housing — $500,000 in a daycare center because we want our moms to work. They need a place that's good and safe for the kids. And 48 new apartments, because you are a pro-housing community.

Thank you very much. And we'll be making some great announcements about Wells Ice Cream. Who doesn't love Wells Ice Cream? Lots of jobs, tax credits, grants — Refresco beverages. Momentum is building is my point. I could give you an even longer list. Momentum is building, but a lot of it was resting on this project happening because as I said, you want to expand, you want to draw more people to the area, you want young people to stay.

You cannot say, “Oh and by the way, if you really need a hospital, it's only 45 minutes down the road.” They'll go closer, but now, they'll stay right here. They'll come here, they'll invest here, they'll build on all these other investments that are so important.

Because if you don’t have a top rate hospital, it's hard to get people excited to come down. So, they need to know they're going to be okay.

So, this is a big win. It's a big win for Dunkirk, Fredonia and all of Chautauqua County. And I look forward to coming back here — soon, I hope — for a groundbreaking and it's going to happen.

You witnessed history in the making. This is the day everything changed for Chautauqua County. Thank you very much. Let me introduce a fierce advocate for this project, Mayor Kate Wdowiasz.