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Middletown health center to receive $4.7M

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By Ryan Gauthier, Staff Writer Updated 12:34 AM Friday, December 11, 2009

MIDDLETOWN — A $4.7 million grant is headed to Middletown to help replace the city’s community health center.

The Butler County Community Health Consortium in Middletown is set to receive $4.7 million in federal stimulus funds to build a new 18,000-square-foot health center at the former home of Taft Elementary School off Verity Parkway.

Marc Bellisario, the consortium’s chief executive officer, said the project could cost up to $6 million, with the agency covering the remaining $1.4 million. The BCCHC has yet to acquire the land, Bellisario said, but is hoping to work out a transfer agreement with Middletown City Schools, the current property owners.

“We still have some issues that need to be resolved with that,” Bellisario said. “And the grant money unfortunately doesn’t cover the costs associated with acquiring the land, so we’re somewhere between $5.6 million and $6 million.”

No set dates are in place for construction, but a timeframe associated with the funding requires the group pick a contractor by February, complete the design phase by March and complete construction within 24 months. That would put the building opening in December 2011 at the absolute latest, Bellisario said.

While the BCCHC could have proposed the project for elsewhere in the county, Bellisario said “there’s a lot of unmet need in the city of Middletown for health care for the uninsured or underinsured.”

Jackie Phillips, Middletown’s director of nursing, said expanding the current Community Health Center is not an option because it’s a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development structure.

The current facility could be reworked and dedicated solely to dental care, pharmacy or storage space, Phillips said.

Middletown will receive the funds as part of nearly $600 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act awards to support major construction and renovation projects at 85 community health centers nationwide.The funds are given to Federally Qualified Community Health Centers that demonstrated a need for facility improvements. These were the latest in a series of announcements sending funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to community health centers.

Other Ohio communities netting funding were Columbus with $4.4 million, McConnelsville with $6 million and Milford with nearly $10 million.

Staff writer Jessica Heffner contributed to this report.

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