By Lisa Buie, Times Staff Writer
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Deb Price-Nielsen, left, shows Keith Cuspilich the features of state-of-the-art beds in critical care at Morton Plant North Bay Hospital’s new Starkey Medical Tower.
Home values continued to plunge. Stores closed, but others opened in their places. Hospitals expanded and changed CEOs. A proposed major mall got handed a major setback. Officials looked for ways to get government aid to jump-start economic development.
If 2009 was more down than up, 2010 had a few more bright spots, although double-digit unemployment continued to plague the county the entire year.
Health care continued to be recession-proof, with Morton Plant opening a $49 million expansion that nearly doubled the size of the original hospital in New Port Richey.
The expansion featured a three-story, 56,000-square-foot Starkey Medical Tower, named because of the $1 million donation from the pioneer ranching family (Marsha Starkey ...