KDSN RADIO News
Crawford County Converting City Center For Public Health
Crawford County recently purchased the City Center building that used to house the CCMH medical clinic. Supervisor Jean Heiden says they plan to move multiple departments in after some renovations.
“Take some sinks out of some exam rooms. Turn some exam rooms into offices. Make some ADA bathroom changes. Add some doors,” said Heiden. “Down in the basement is where we’re going to see bigger changes where mental health and DHS will have some meeting rooms. We have a vision of there being a large space down there and place for citizens to meet and gather.”
The county purchased the two-story building at 115 North 14th Street from the hospital for $280,000 earlier this year. Heiden says the expected upgrades will be funded by the American Rescue Plan. She says helping Public Health make improvements is one of the county’s highest priorities especially after the recent pandemic.
“They were the ones that we administrating the immunizations, they knew what the daily numbers were, and we just didn’t have the space to take care of our people,” said Heiden. “There is even going to be a place that we could have a drive-thru vaccination which we did not have during this last pandemic. We pray there isn’t one but these funds were there for so if we do then these small communities are ready to anything that comes along.”
The county also pledged up to $750,000 in ARPA funds to the Wellness Center and expects to use some of the money on renovating courthouse restrooms and building land mobile radio towers.