Helipad to replace nursing center

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MONROE – Carolinas Medical Center plans to demolish the Smith Nursing Center on Dove Street and build a ground-level helipad that will serve the adjacent CMC-Union facility. The Monroe City Council approved a zoning map amendment for the 6.76-acre property on Dec. 3. Carolinas HealthCare System wants its Union center to be a certified trauma facility but cannot meet certification requirements because it takes too long to get a trauma patient who arrives by helicopter from the hospital’s roof to the emergency room. The ground-level helipad will allow the hospital to meet the requirement. The proposal includes the removal of about 60 trees on the property to accommodate an approach path for the helipad, as well as about 340 feet of landscape buffer along a portion of the property adjacent to Highway 74.

In another action, the city has requested proposals from landscape architecture and planning firms to conduct updates for the existing parks, recreation, greenways and open space and greenway specific master plans. The deadline is Dec. 27 for the proposals, which should be marked: City of Monroe, Parks, Recreation, Greenways and Open Space Master Plan Updates, and submitted to Tonya Edwards, Assistant Director, Monroe Parks & Recreation Department, P. O. Box 69, Monroe, NC 28111-0069. For more information regarding the scope of work, please contact Edwards by e-mail: [email protected]