With Riverside Smithfield Hospital getting closer to its 2026 opening date, Isle of Wight County is again turning its attention to a proposed water tower that would be built adjacent to the 30-acre medical campus.

It will be the subject of a public hearing scheduled for the county Planning Commission’s April 22 meeting, according to advertisements published in the Times’ April 2 and April 9 print editions. Isle of Wight County Public Utilities is seeking a special use permit that would allow the 750,000 gallon tank to be built 30 feet taller than the maximum 130-foot height allowed in rural agricultural conservation zoning.

Isle of Wight received $1.2 million in federal funding for the project last year earmarked in the 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act approved by Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden. U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., traveled to the hospital to present Isle of Wight officials with a ceremonial check last summer.

County Administrator Randy Keaton said last year that the federal funding will be combined with $1.6 million proffered by East West Communities, the developer of the 776-home Benn’s Grant subdivision next to the hospital, and another $1.6 million from water and sewer tap fees the county has collected from Benn’s Grant, for $4.7 million in total. The tower will provide increased water pressure to the 50-bed hospital and to the surrounding community via a water line that runs parallel with Benns Church Boulevard from Smithfield High School to the Isle of Wight-Suffolk line.

Plans for the water tower have been in the works for roughly two decades. Isle of Wight solicited bids for the project on Feb. 21, giving a due date of May 15.

The exterior of the hospital is on track to be largely complete by this summer, according to senior project manager Russell Parrish. This month, the trailers that have housed Riverside Smithfield staff since the hospital broke ground will be hauled away to make room for final paving and landscaping and by the end of May the fencing surrounding the campus will come down.

The hospital is set to see its first patients in January of next year while the detached Jamison-Longford Medical Building, which will house outpatient physical therapy and specialist services, is on track to be complete by late May to early June and is set to open in August.