ALEXANDRIA BAY, N.Y. -- This past summer, the hope was ground would break in the fall.

River Hospital in Alexandria Bay with a $7 million plan to not only upgrade the main emergency room, but also create a new 26,000-square foot building that would move the health center and soldier wellness program into one place and also house administration, which now rents a building downtown.

"We've been living in some cramped quarters for quite a long time," Hope & Healing Capital Campaign Chair Richard Macsherry said.

It's been almost a decade. When the hospital first brought in those outpatient services like physical therapy and PTSD treatment, those trailers that house them were supposed to be just a temporary fix.

"It's been longer than we had wanted and longer than the village had wanted, but the function still had to go through. It had to go forward," Macsherry said.

Now that fall is winter, the new goal is to break ground sometime in 2017. Funding though, is still needed.

Tuesday, the Kinney Drugs Foundation pitched in a check for $15,000. River Hospital is now one step closer to that goal of hope and healing.

"This is a great venture for the community. They do great support services for the whole area and we're always glad to be a part of that," David McClure of the Kinney Drugs Foundation said.

When it happens, the new building will go just to the side of the main hospital. It'll be right on the water, facing Boldt Castle -- the kind of peace and serenity that River Hospital says is key to helping physical therapy patients and soldiers battling the traumas of war.

The spot in which the health center and wellness program trailers sit now will become some much-needed parking.