Northern Montana Hospital’s foundation is looking to build an addition south of the Sletten Cancer Center in the next few years, piquing the curiosity of their neighbors.

At last Monday’s Havre City Council meeting, Keith Nordrum, whose house on Ike Avenue faces away from the cancer center, asked questions about the proposed “Gift of Life” housing project to be built just past his backyard.

The project would consist of one complex for four patients staying in Havre for cancer treatment.

“We are hearing that people are travelling to Great Falls for their cancer treatment only because they have no place to stay, ” Christen Obresley, executive director of the Northern Montana Health Care Foundation Inc., said.

The foundation, according to Obresley, is beginning a two-year fundraising effort to raise $400,000 to start building the center next summer and hopefully have it open in 2013.

Nordrum approached the council with his concerns about the streets and traffic in his neighborhood once the new center is built.

At the time, Mayor Tim Solomon said Nordrum was not the first person the city had heard from, and that Nordrum should contact the hospital with his questions.

This morning Dave Peterson, public works director, said that the city had heard from people, though mostly just from people wondering what is going on up there.

Peterson said they referred people’s questions to the hospital because the city hadn’t officially heard anything from the hospital yet about their plans.

Obresley said that they welcome any thoughts and comments on their plans and encouraged people to reach out to the hospital, or Obresley herself at 262-1410.

One concern they had heard from people in the area around the Sletten Center, according to Obresley, was about the possible extension of Centurion Street into a through street and “that’s not our intention, ” Obresley said.

Their goal is not to bother anyone, but to gather “extra philanthropic support from the community, ” to offer another service to patients.