Frank Beach of Dunkirk has collected close to 3,000 signatures and is set to hold a major rally Friday.

Both are in opposition to Brooks Memorial Hospital moving from Central Avenue in Dunkirk to a vacant lot a few miles down the road on East Main Street in Fredonia.

"The major concerns people have if you're trying to excite them to move to your community are schools and hospitals. And if we lose our hospital, that's not going to bode well for us to try and attract people to move here,” said Beach.

Beach is part of a grassroots effort with a laundry list of reasons why the hospital should stay where it is.

The group is instead encouraging hospital leaders to renovate the current facility and help bolster the city's economy.

"We want them to take pause. I get to a point where I say enough is enough, and that's the point we're at now,” said Beach.

"We get it, it's emotional. There's a real tight connection, we recognize that, we respect it. But we need to make sure we can keep health care local for this community and we're not going to be able to do that much longer in a building that's really zapping dollars trying to keep maintenance going,” said Mary LaRowe, Brooks TLC Hospital System president and CEO.

The $60 million state-funded facility is downsizing from 179,000 square feet to a more efficient 100,000.

Leaders say Brooks will remain a Dunkirk community partner, but the current facility is old, and inefficient for staff to operate.

"Quite frankly, from a patient standpoint, the rooms are small, technology doesn't fit in the rooms and many folks would like to have their family members with them, with their ill. So the new facility will have a good patient experience. And we see the community as a broader region,” said LaRowe.

"I think many of the members of our community consider themselves Dunkirk and Fredonia members. I don't know that there's a dividing line,” said Chris Lanski, Brooks TLC Hospital System board of directors chairman.

Hospital board leaders say it's impossible to renovate the facility, and that they looked at about 24 different sites before deciding on Fredonia.

"Advances in medical technology that we can bring in. Open green space, be inviting to customers and patients. And also attractive to medical professionals that would be interested in serving in our hospital,” said Lanski.

And while the hospital's board of directors focuses on its new site, it has assembled a citizens advisory committee, a cross-section of community leaders to help find a re-use for the current facility.

"To go out to multiple sources that may be interested in occupying the site and coming up with a very appropriate use for,” said Lanski.

Until then, Beach hopes his rally cry to keep the hospital in Dunkirk reaches as far as Albany.

"Everything is about this city. If they support the idea of keeping our hospital in Dunkirk, come down, let that be known. Let it be known so that the governor can hear this and can see it,” said Beach,

Friday's rally is set for 4:15 p.m. outside the hospital.

Brooks leaders hope to break ground in the spring and open in early 2021.