Mayor Karl Nail, during the State of the City luncheon last week, provided an update on the proposed Indian Nation Health Complex to be built at 16th Street and State Highway 62 in Newcastle.
Nail said, “Last Friday, the tribal legislature approved the expenditure of funds to move forward with the construction of the project, which means they can now have a big announcement of, yes, we’re building it. Before, they had the money to engineer, design, those type of things. Now they’re preparing to build. In the very near future, you’re going to see a big announcement for a large grand opening for what will eventually be one of the largest, most comprehensive Native American health facilities in the nation, in Newcastle, Oklahoma.”
Nail was cautious in providing the update, saying that any further information will need to be part of an official Chickasaw Nation announcement.
The mayor said the City did not solicit bringing the hospital to Newcastle.
“We didn’t ask them to bring it here, but we’re in the Chickasaw Nation ... and they have the ability to build it here. It’s on trust land, so we don’t have any control over what they do on the land. It’s (now) federal trust land,” Nail said. “What we have to do is figure out how to deal with it. The traffic is going to bring a demand for housing, there will be demand for places to eat, and for hotels.”
Nail said there are three other Native American hospitals in the state, and they have people from across the nation who come there for care, so the Chickasaw Nation anticipates there will be people who come and spend a week in the Newcastle area, getting their dental work done, their semi-annual work done, and procedures such as heart scans, heart catheterizations, and colonoscopies. Nail said they’ll need a place to stay, places to eat, and Newcastle will need ancillary businesses where the visitors can take care of their needs. These are the things that Newcastle City Council and administrators are planning for, he said.
The goal to have Phase 1 of the Health Complex complete is four years.
“Phase one is going to take a little less than four years to build, but the goal is going to be much less than that. Full build out is going to probably be 10 to 12 years,” Nail said.
He said their goal is to, hopefully, roll into phase 2, and then phase 3. The Chickasaw Nation has been negotiating with Indian Health Services to determine staffing costs reimbursements, and they are now planning for about 2,500 employees working on site after phase 1 is built. Total employees is now anticipated to HOSPITAL on page 7 be between 5,000 and 6,000. Nail said the City of Newcastle has been working the past four years with the Chickasaw Nation to plan out infrastructure projects for water, sewer, and roadways to deal with what is coming.
The City will build an 18inch water line to serve the facility. This will also serve other areas of Newcastle in the vicinity. There will also be a new lift station built just south of the hospital complex. Nail said 16th Street will be the entrance to the hospital’s emergency room, so it will be expanded for about a half mile, going to the west from SH-62.
