The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Colorado National Guard will begin moving an overflow hospital into The Ranch in Loveland on Thursday.
“It’s a really big deal for Larimer County, for the region,” said Katie O’Donnell, spokeswoman for the Larimer County Department of Health. “We hope we don’t need it. It’s set up for 1,000 beds. It can be expanded if needed. We want to be ready if needed.”
Larimer County reached a lease agreement after 8 p.m. Tuesday with the state and national agencies for the use of 189,000 square feet of space at The Ranch for the temporary hospital. Steve Johnson, chair of the board, signed the lease Tuesday, and all three commissioners ratified it at a noon meeting Wednesday.
The lease, which began immediately and lasts through Jan. 1 with the option of a three-month extension, includes the First National Bank Exhibition Hall, the McKee Community Building and the covered arena and barns, County Manager Linda Hoffmann explained. The state of Colorado will pay Larimer County about $750,000 per month to use the buildings, a rate of 13 cents per day per square foot.
As certain areas are no longer needed, they will be turned back to the county and the monthly rate will be reduced proportionately.
The county was careful not to include the Budweiser Events Center or its main parking area in the lease, so the county will have the option to hold events there if the threat of gathering lifts but the hospital is still in place, Hoffmann said.
“We think that’s unlikely,” Hoffmann added. “We think the facility will only be operating while we are in the prohibition for assembly.”
The Army Corps will set up the hospital, and the Colorado National Guard will run it. The state will pay for the facility using money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“It’s pretty cool,” said O’Donnell. “It’s a pretty big deal to plan ahead and have our preparations in place so we are ready whenever we see the surge that we expect.”
The overflow hospital will have 1,000 beds and will be used to care for patients who are transferred there from other hospitals throughout the Northern Colorado region should the need for beds outpace the existing hospital capacities. Patients will not be directly admitted at that site.
The coronavirus pandemic is predicted to hit its peak in Larimer County at the end of April or early May, and officials said the overflow hospital could be up and running in two to three weeks.
All three county commissioners spoke of how The Ranch has been a great facility for entertainment and community events over the years but also has served as a needed facility during large fires and floods, for emergency shelter for people and animals, for public gatherings and to meet other public needs. Now, Johnson said, it will serve the community and the entire region well in a new and different time of need.
“This is very, very good news for Larimer County,” Johnson said at a recent public meeting. “One of the things we’re fearful of, and we have seen in other communities, is the medical surge where the needs overwhelm the ICU beds or the ventilators and overwhelm and overtax our health care providers’ ability to treat not only the COVID patients, but the other patients that continue to come to the hospital. Their ongoing needs don’t go away.”
The lease will last until January 2021 and covers some of the major facilities that are typically used for the Larimer County Fair in August, including the First National Bank Exhibition Hall, the McKee Community Building, barns and a livestock arena. But the lease also lets the state turn certain buildings and facilities back to the county, piece by piece, if they are no longer needed.
With the uncertainty of the pandemic and of how long prohibitions against gathering will be in place, the county has not yet made any announcements about the county fair.
“We’re in a wait-and-see mode about the fair,” added Hoffmann.
