proposal for a central utility plant.

Plans for the plant include a controversial 87-foot smokestack which initially drew objections by a group of 15 who live in the surrounding Berry Hill, Paget area.

The plant will also include one bio-oxidation Unit, two boilers, two emergency generators, two chillers, oxygen equipment and a storage area.

Last month residents from both Berry Hill and Point Finger Road, concerned about the pollution the stack would cause, packed a meeting held with King Edward VII Memorial Hospital officials to discuss their concerns.

At that meeting hospital officials insisted the smoke stack would not cause pollution problems, but solve them.

Residents were also told the hospital's three 40-foot smoke stacks would be replaced by the single 87-foot stack, designed to improve the air quality of the surrounding area, would comply with Government regulations.

Residents were informed that the present incinerator plagued them with emissions that ended up on their roofs.

The proposed bio-oxidation is estimated to cost $1.4 million to complete.

Yesterday, the hospital's director of facilities management Neal Crane told The Royal Gazette as far as he knew many of the residents who had voiced complaints had formally withdrawn their objections.

A check of both the list of objections to the project and the list of withdrawals showed that principal objectors such as Greg Smith, who led the group of 15 residents complaining, submitted signed statements which said the meeting held last month resolved questions about the smokestack.

Mr. Crane said once the hospital receives final approval and funding, the building of the plant, which will be located next to the nurses residence where the tennis court is now, will start sometime within the next two months.

"It's an important environmental project that will correct a lot of problems,'' Mr. Crane added. "It makes more sense to have everything (boilers and generators) in one building.'' He also said the new generators could provide the hospital with more power and make the running of the hospital much more manageable.