Broadway Veterinary Clinic was opened at 5915 Broadway in Lancaster, NY on March 21, 1994 by Dr. Melinda R. Burgwardt. The property had been a small private home built in the 1960's, and was a simple frame house with a kitchen, living room, 3 small bedrooms, a bathroom, a basement, and a back porch. Dr. Burgwardt (known as "Dr. B." to her clients) and her husband, Glenn, found the house in the summer of 1993. They brainstormed with her father, Carl F. Burgwardt, (formerly of Community Steel Corp. and now of Pedaling History, The Burgwardt Bicycle Museum) on ideas for a floor plan for remodeling the house into a veterinary clinic. With the help of her father, Carl, and accountant Don Mumbach of Concord Business Center and attorney Eric Bloom, of Bloom, Neubeck and Shonn, Dr. Burgwardt was able to purchase the house and finance the mortgage, remodeling, and equipment through the Bank of Akron and several leases. The plans were drawn up by architect Jim Singer, who also added some great suggestions. Dr. B. contracted with Tom Ferry of Ferry Builders for the changes to be made, and he also provided additional great ideas.

Nearly every wall in the original house was moved in the remodeling, except for the wall down the center of the building. The front living room was converted into a small reception area, a waiting room, and two very small exam rooms. Behind the exam rooms, the largest bedroom was converted into a pharmacy hallway and a small office. The area of the two back bedrooms and bathroom was converted into an x-ray room, a developing room, an instrument sterilization area, and a treatment room/laboratory. The former kitchen became the new bathroom and the surgery room. The original plan to enclose the back porch for use as a kennel room was not possible, and a new addition to the back of the building was added to create that kennel room, including a room below the kennel room for an employee kitchen area. The rest of the basement was only usable for storage and laundry facilities and remained so.

Prior to starting Broadway Veterinary Clinic, Dr. Burgwardt had been working for another practice in the area. After leaving that practice and during the building remodeling, from October 1993 until March 1994 she provided veterinary services through house calls, driving around the area with a full carload of supplies, since predicting what any animal might need before even seeing it can be difficult. As the opening date neared, Dr. B. interviewed to hire quality staff. Our initial full-time staff consisted of the ever-sunny receptionist, Judy and the efficient, compassionate, and experienced Licensed Veterinary Technician, Joyce, with whom Dr. B. had worked for the previous 5 years-Joyce is still here now. After we announced and planned the clinic's opening date, the weather caused construction delays, which allowed us the adventure of opening 2 weeks before our kennel and surgery facilities were ready for patients, and having to use a card table for a reception desk for the first 3 days.

"A coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous." Noting that an unbelievable series of "coincidences" had occurred with virtually impossible perfect timing to facilitate the creation of this practice, Dr. Burgwardt knew that God had truly been a big part of the process. "The difference between a coincidence and a miracle is faith." A dedication ceremony was held shortly after opening, and Broadway Veterinary Clinic was "dedicated to the Glory of God through the maintenance and restoration of the health of His creatures." The minister from Dr. B's church, the Reverend Carl Olin, Jr. blessed the building, room by room. A plaque was made and hung near the entryway to declare our dedication.

Ferry Builders had done a beautiful job on the remodeling of the building and although it was small, it served our needs very well with its solid construction and efficient layout. We had almost state-of-the-art facilities, even though they were in small spaces, including central oxygen lines with an anesthetic scavenger system, a top-of -the-line x-ray machine and automatic processor, and all of the basic equipment. Although construction was officially complete shortly after we opened, starting a new practice from nothing had required doing only what had to be done with tight budget constraints, and there was still much to do. The new entryway and the addition to the back of the building had been covered with siding that didn't match the color of the painted shingle on the rest of the building. Dr. B. spent her off-hours that first summer almost single-handedly painting the exterior of the clinic herself, planting and weeding the gardens, and mowing the lawn. Adams Nursery put in a beautiful strip of landscaped garden along the front and side of the building, and the humble little place looked great! Soon thereafter, Dr. B. added what seemed to be the finishing touch-a flagpole with the American flag proudly waving above.

Broadway Veterinary Clinic's number of patients grew rapidly. Dr. B. and the staff cared for many animals, including wildlife. Many pet owners who had gone to Dr. B. where she had previously practiced came to the new clinic. Dr. B. felt a great debt of gratitude and wanted to thank them and share the joy of having the new clinic up and running and let them see more than just the exam rooms. In the fall of 1994, 5 months after opening, Broadway Veterinary Clinic held its first Client Appreciation Day/Open House. There were games and prizes and raffles and tours and pet treats and informative talks and brochures and free hot dogs and pop. It was a fun day, and from then on, became an annual event.

As quickly as we could, we added things that would help us serve our patients better-laboratory machines to do more testing on site, and a computer system to keep track of vaccine dates and help with invoices and accounting. Soon more staff were needed and hired, seeming to have the right person show up just when we needed them. We were joined by Licensed Veterinary Technician Robin, then receptionist Gail, then Licensed Veterinary Technician Renee. The daughter of a client of ours, a teenager named Kathryn who had always shown Dr. B. she wanted to be a veterinarian, reached working age just as we grew large enough to need a kennel-and-general-cleaning person, so we created the new position to give her a chance to see veterinary medicine first-hand. She worked for us for 2 years before going off to college.

Being the only doctor and responsible for every single patient and every single question, Dr. B. began to be so busy that she stayed very late most nights just to manage all the callbacks and business administrative work. It was time for another veterinarian to join our happy family of animal-loving professionals, and we were blessed to find Dr. Kristi Mt. Pleasant, who joined us in 1997. The problem was, we had no office space for her-not even room for a desk! Our little building was already too small, but we all got along so well that even bumping into each other all the time wasn't that big of a problem. We gave Dr. M. a roll-out typing table for a desk and tucked it into the corner of the x-ray room for her to pull out and use when needed-so long as no one needed to take an x-ray just then! At about the same time, we also added Licensed Veterinary Technician Carol to our staff. We now had 9 people busily working in a tiny building, and our many clients and patients were feeling the crowding in the tiny waiting room and exam rooms.

Other areas of the building were feeling the pinch, too. There were so many patient medical charts that we didn't have enough file drawer space and no room to put more drawers! We needed 2 receptionists at a time to serve our clients' needs, but there was only room for one in our tiny reception area. We only had 10 kennels, and when we had several wildlife patients in, there was no room for our surgical patients for the day. We added onto our parking lot, but it was clear that even before the start-up bills could be paid down, we desperately needed to expand the building-and soon! Was it possible to be blessed too much?

Knowing we couldn't yet afford to start, we at least began to plan. A list was posted for all the staff to add to-what should our ideal veterinary practice include? Dr. B. began the list with some basics: 4 exam rooms, at least twice as big as current ones; no interruption of services during construction; at least 3 times as much kennel space; two treatment room sink-tables; an office bigger than a closet!, an education room for animal information…. Our staff added onto the list: first floor laundry facilities; central vacuuming (since we do it at least twice daily…..); 2 microscopes and room to sit at them; an office for Dr. M…. By the time we were finished there were two full pages-some pipe dreams and fantasies, but most of them real needs and very good ideas.

In January of 1998, Dr. B. required foot reconstruction surgery to correct bunions. It meant 8 weeks sick-leave away from the clinic with Dr. M. and the rest of the staff and a few "relief" veterinarians keeping patients well-cared for. Once she felt well enough, with her healing foot propped on a pillow, Dr. B. took the list and began working on the plans for expanding the clinic. Architect Tim Schnaufer of Eden, NY was given a copy of the dream-clinic list and a drawing of the current floor plan. After a brief meeting to go over it all, he quickly sketched the first idea of an absolutely wonderful floor plan. The new addition could be done while we were providing services as usual in the "old" place, then we could move into it while the old side was remodeled for the new plan. No interruption of services, and a beautiful plan was shaping up. Soon after, through a few more meetings, Tim Schnaufer's plan was virtually complete, and it included about 90% of our needs and dreams!

There was no question of contractor-Ferry Builders had done such a great job and been so reputable and good to work with that Tom Ferry was asked to quote the job. He worked with Dr. B, Glenn, and Tim Schnaufer through meetings at Dr. B's house while she healed from surgery and later after she went back to work. It was hoped that construction could begin in the fall of 1998. Everyone hurried to try to get things in order to do so. We cancelled our annual fall Client Appreciation Day open house-we were going to be under construction!

In the big rush, Tim had other commitments that gave him little time to do the many precise drawings and specification lists required for getting a full quote for the bank loan applications and for getting approval from the town, and another architect was able to finish them more quickly. We showed Tim's preliminary drawings of what seemed perfect plans to our new architect, Mark Dean, of DeanSutton Architects. He was able to improve even more on a few areas and drew up final drawings for us to submit for all of the approvals we needed. The best was getting even better! But it was taking a lot of time to assemble the details of the job, and to get an estimate and to apply for the permits and loans. Costs were also starting to add up, and this was beginning to become unaffordable. Knowing that finances were tight, Tom Ferry did his best to find ways to re-use current cabinets, fixtures, sinks, and anything else he could, and suggested cost-saving variations that wouldn't reduce the quality of the build or take away anything we needed.

Other parts of the plans also contained some difficulties. Our property is rather oddly shaped, which both helped and hurt us. Because the drop-off from the front of the property to the back was so steep, we could only really use part of the property we owned-the part on the upper plateau. It needed to include the entire clinic plus all the required number of parking spaces. The town required 21 spaces for a business this size and in all honesty, we had to agree we needed them, since staff alone needed many! We had several beautiful trees: 2 flowering crabapple trees out front, two giant silver maples on the side, and a very large catalpa tree on the side of the property. There was no way to keep them all, and shouldn't have been any way to keep ANY of them, but we worked very hard on designing the parking lot to try to save the silver maples and especially the catalpa, as it was a particularly large specimen of its type. The laws do not allow parking areas to extend very close to the property lines or road, but the good aspect of our odd property shape and terrain was that we could show that no one on either side of us could possible be affected by our parking lot. Therefore, since the town was with us on trying to save trees, we were able to get a 100% variance to take our parking lot all the way to both edges of the property we owned, so that we could manage to make the required 21 spaces and try to save the catalpa tree. At the last minute, it was found we simply could not save the silver maples, one of which was found to already be diseased anyway, but the catalpa still stands! And the decision was made to plant at least two new trees after construction was complete-it took us a little while, but in 2002, we planted 3 redbud trees!

The next concern was financing. The original building had been financed to the hilt, and we had barely qualified for that. Now, with little paid off, we needed much more than we could qualify for to make this happen. Could we wait and do it in a few more years? No-we were already desperate for more space and still growing fast! We briefly considered only expanding the building by a part of what we really needed. But there seemed no way to do anything with a smaller expansion and not have to still do it all again in only a few more years. The plan "felt" right, yet seemed totally impossible. But with God, all things are possible.

In the few years since the opening of Broadway Veterinary Clinic, Dr. Burgwardt's church's minister, the Reverend Carl G. Olin, Jr., who had blessed the original building, had retired. The church had a new minister, the Reverend Richard Krogmann, whose wife, Pat, just happened to be a banker! Even she had to struggle to manage it for us, but ultimately, with a lot of help once again from our accountant, Don Mumbach, of Concord Business Center, she was able to get us approved by M&T Bank for just enough to get the job done! It would be a joyous struggle, but the expansion was going to happen! Unfortunately, however, the approval for the financing could not be finalized before the winter of '98-despite no snow until mid-December-set in. Construction could not begin until 1999.

In preparation for the bigger building, we hired another receptionist, Kathy in early 1999. She'd have to work in cramped spaces until the new building was done, but at least there was more help up front and she'd be familiar with normal things before everything got disrupted. Later that spring we lost Robin-one of our technicians-to a job closer to home. As much as we would miss her, we understood, for she had been commuting for over 4 years from Youngstown-an hour each way-to work for us! She was replaced by Licensed Veterinary Technician Denise, who has a strong interest in reptiles and was glad to come to a practice that includes them.

In early spring of 1999, we learned there would be a delay in the county's installation of a sewer line to the property. Since we had counted on that so we wouldn't have to put in a new septic system, construction was further delayed. We didn't get started until mid-July. But oh! What a start!

Our gigantic trees disappeared in only 2 hours-gone and cleaned up. It was sad to see what took hundreds of years to grow disappear so fast, yet riveting to watch. Then the big equipment arrived. On the first day of real construction, all of the landscaped plants-which we had so carefully transplanted in the fall of 1998 from our gardens to an area we thought would safely preserve them-got bulldozed. Our stairs for the side entrance for staff were removed and a giant hole dug for the new foundation. In the first two weeks of construction, we encountered some unexpected "extras": our entire phone system fall off the basement wall and broke, an old unused sewage tank in our basement suddenly started leaking and smelling, the security system got disconnected by the phone repairmen, and a computer stopped working for no reason. Still, we managed to get through it all, and watched things slowly take shape.

Dr. B. envisioned a building that would fit as naturally into the environment as possible for a large building! The shape needed to look homey and residential, and the plans captured that quite well. The color needed to look natural, and Dr. B. selected a wood-grain look siding. The entire staff consulted with each other about colors and shades for flooring, carpeting and countertops, laying samples out all over the floor during breaks or slow moments. We considered quite a few combinations, but wanted green and lavender. However, there were no lavenders in the color samples for anything. We decided to add it with an accent paint stripe, which then gave the versatility of changing our secondary color in the future, and we carefully chose a great combination of greens for the rest.

In late December, the new addition was finished, and we spent several days moving everything into it and vacating the old side entirely. Within a few days, the old side was completely gutted with nearly all walls being removed once again. The new side was so much bigger than the old side had been that even though we had no waiting room or reception area, simply using 2 of our 4 exam rooms for those areas was already an improvement! And it wasn't long-only about another 10 weeks-before the old side was finished to complete the plans and let us expand into the full building and the flow plan we had intended.

As a finishing touch, a beautiful garden with a pond and waterfall was designed and installed by Tom Ulbrich of Ulbrich's in Alden. The garden has a hedge to provide a partial barrier from the parking lot and road, but a stepping-stone walk that welcomes you to enter. It contains the pond and waterfall, plants that attract birds, hummingbirds and butterflies, several wildlife figurines, a praying angel statue, and a bench on which one can sit and relax and feel at peace.

As we neared the end of construction, our receptionist, Kathy, decreased to part-time and also took on our cleaning duties. New receptionist, Kerry, joined us just as the expansion was completed and has fit right in. Since we settled into the new building, our technician, Renee, also took a job closer to her home and in her place we hired Licensed Veterinary Technician Linda. Our initial receptionist, Judy, also is no longer here and we now have receptionist Jennifer.

Once again knowing how very much God had been a part of making all of these things happen, building a fabulous clinic and bringing together wonderful people to do the work and staff the practice, Dr. B. felt it important to re-dedicate the practice "to the Glory of God through the healing and compassionate care of His creatures." A ceremony was held to do so on June 21, 2000 and the Reverend Richard Krogmann asked God's blessing on the people and the various rooms of the building. A new plaque declaring the re-dedication now hangs in the entryway next to the original one. In the fall of 2000, we held an open house to proudly show everyone our new state-of-the-art building and resume our annual fall tradition of a special Client Appreciation Day.

We are particularly proud of a couple of unique features in our waiting room. Our Education Room, which was a part of the plans from the beginning, is open to anyone and includes books for reference, pleasure reading, help with grief, or children's stories-all related to animals. There are also animal videos, dog breed puzzles, and a computer with a game called "I Can Be An Animal Doctor." The other unique feature was an inspiration that came after construction was completed: receptionist Kathy has painted a beautiful nature scene on one wall with the first two lines of a famous hymn: "All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small." How many animals can you find in the scene? Someday we hope to have her paint the other walls in the waiting room with more animals and the final two lines of the hymn: "All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all." Kathy has wonderful artistic talent and also makes beautiful woodburnings of animals.

There will always be more to do, as we strive to maintain our high standards, keep up our building and land, keep all of our staff well-trained in the latest developments for great patient care, keep our equipment up to date, and strive for whatever God leads us to do to serve Him well. Above all, we do our best to take good care of our clients and our patients-God's creatures-as He has entrusted us to. And with His help, we will keep getting better and better at doing that!