Butler Health System trustees on Monday will announce expansion plans for Butler Memorial Hospital.

The announcement will cap three years of studies on whether the board should renovate the hospital's current campus on East Brady Street or build a new facility elsewhere in the county.

In December 2003, the board's plans to build a new facility on New Castle Road met public resistance.

That opposition caused board members to restudy the issue, but they came to the same conclusion in late 2004.

Another study in 2005 also concluded that it would be cheaper and less disruptive to patient services if a new hospital campus was built instead of making renovations to the present site.

In October, the trustees announced they had narrowed the site search to three locations and hired a construction manager, Ritter of Bellingham, Wash.

Then, two weeks ago, Joseph Stewart, the man who led the system's quest for a new location, retired. He had been the system's president and chief executive officer since 1996.

Ken DeFurio, who had been the system's chief operating officer, was named interim president and CEO of the hospital system. He was directed to push the hospital project at "clipper speed."