But the news everyone carried away from the big tent event at White Wolf in Napanoch came when ERH CEO Steve Kelley announced that the hospital that just celebrated its half century mark will be entirely replaced within five years.

A new hospital, Kelley explained, will be built on the site of what's there now, on either side of the current facility, and then when it is completed and opened the old building will be removed and replaced with parking.

Kelley showed off a pair of renderings that demonstrated just how the new buildings will surround the old ones, as well as what the new hospital will look like when the work is completed and the current buildings are gone.

Kelley noted that Ellenville Regional Hospital has been earning a national reputation for excellence and has had two of its projects discussed among twenty brought up at this year's American Hospital Association gathering. He added that a new IT system will go live by February 1, completely updating the hospital's computer and internet systems, and pointed out that the idea for the new hospital came from John Gavaris, ERH director of support services.

"Our current buildings are fifty years old. They are not up to modern code. Our patient rooms are too small. Single patient rooms are now required and they must be large enough to include visiting areas for family and friends," Gavaris explained of the new steps forward. "We are in competition with other hospitals and we need to be 'hotel-esque' as much as possible. More than that, we have a number of issues with our facilities that will have to be repaired or replaced over the next two decades. Because of the nature of the construction of the hospital, this work will be very expensive and doing it while functioning at the same time will be arduous. I knew we had to do something more than just keep band-aiding so one day I told Steve what I was thinking. Of course, he gave me all the reasons it couldn't be done. But two weeks later he came into my office and asked me to come up and walk him through the idea again. We did that, and he said 'We can do this.' That was three months ago."

During the interim, Kelley had to get the hospital board of directors on board, which they did with relative ease.

The timeline for the new hospital will include one and a half to two years of fundraising, with the entire project currently costed out at $45 million.

"Once we get to 50-60 percent of the funding we can get started," Gavaris said. "The rest could be paid with a long term loan; we have excellent credit these days with local banks and there are possible low interest rate loans from the state as well."

Once fundraising begins in earnest, after hitting its first benchmarks, there will be another 1.5 years for design and architectural work. "We want the buildings to be green and energy efficient" Gavaris noted. "And when the plans are done and approvals are gained from town and county, the building will get underway."

Add on another 1.5 years for building the new structures, one on the current helicopter pad and a "South Wing" to go up in front of today's hospital where the loop driveway now exists. Then will come the demolition, for which Gavaris suggested an additional ball park figure of $5 million. When it's all done Ellenville Regional Hospital will have been reborn and made ready, as Kelley noted at the gala, "for the next fifty years."