POST FALLS - Rob Clark said he has always planned to construct a bell tower as the signature feature of his Bell Tower Funeral Home.

He intends to have a bell sound at noon each day and for each funeral service.

"That's significant with the history of a bell," he said. "It's what they did in the old days for church, weddings and funerals."

But now that he's planning to start work on the 45-foot, $50,000 bell tower, he's getting resistance from his neighbor, Northern Idaho Advanced Care Hospital, which is constructing a new 30-bed facility that will serve trauma and brain and spinal injury patients.

"What's Bell Tower without the bell tower?" Clark said, referring to his 3-year-old company's name, logo and business plan.

Maria Godley, NIACH chief executive officer, told the Post Falls City Council on Tuesday night that her company has concerns over the possible negative effects the bell sounds will have on patients of the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Northwest, a joint venture between Ernest Health, which owns NIACH, and Kootenai Health.

"The bell will be within 25 feet of a patient room," Godley said, adding her company also has concerns over the size of the 12-by-12 structure and its height. "Our patients will need a quiet environment as they recover."

The hospital expects to accept patients in December.

Godley and Clark have spoken to each other about the issue, but Clark still plans to start construction on Friday on the tower and Godley is following through on the appeal through the city.

Clark said he wants to be sympathetic toward the hospital's concern, but he planned on building the bell tower on the southwest corner of his property next to the hospital long before the hospital was planned. The new hospital is an expansion of NIACH.

The city earlier approved Clark's site plan, including the tower.

"My plans meet the code," he said.

Clark said there's no other spot on his property for the tower.

He said he realizes businesses have to do what they have to do to be successful. That's why he said he never complained when the new hospital started to go up between his business and Interstate 90, blocking his firm's freeway exposure, and when the hospital requested a variance encroachment to build closer to his business. One of the reasons he chose to build in the industrial-commercial area was to allow for the sounds of the bells and the bell tower.

Clark said the only reason he didn't build the tower sooner was because he wanted to pay cash for it rather than finance it.

"They've known for six months that I've been planning on building it," he said, adding that he also physically showed hospital officials where the structure was going to be built.

He said his company's plans were also shown to NIACH three years ago before construction began on the funeral home and the hospital had no issues with it at that time under a different administrator.

Godley said she was aware of the possibility an additional structure of some sort may be constructed on Bell Tower's property, but she was under the impression it would be built on the north side of Clark's property farther away from the hospital.

"That is what I understood when I talked to him," she said.

Godley said the hospital is being constructed to eliminate freeway noise, but the sounds of bells next to the hospital may be too much to overcome.

Clark said the bell itself won't be rung, but it will be a recording of bells sounded through speakers instead. He said 12 rings will be sounded at noon and likely three rings for services. He estimated the time span for the noon rings to be 20 to 30 seconds long.

Godley said the hospital is open to reaching an agreement - perhaps not protesting the construction of the tower if there are no sounds of bells.

"That's something we could discuss," she said. "That would be a win-win for the patients as well as Bell Tower."

Clark doesn't seem as likely to negotiate.

"If I would have built the tower two years ago, this would be a moot point," he said. "We asked for the hospital's blessing before we bought our property."