FORT FAIRFIELD, Maine — While the clouds Friday morning were dark and ominous, the future of health care in Fort Fairfield looks brighter than ever thanks to a partnership between the town and Pines Health Services.
A ground-breaking ceremony was held Oct. 5 at the site of the Kimball Community Health Center, located at 11 Harmony Lane, a new primary care health clinic that will be named after Dr. Herrick Kimball.
Kimball was a leader in developing the former Community General Hospital in the 1940s. His vision of health care in town went beyond the role of a physician; he owned and operated the first hospital in Fort Fairfield and played an instrumental part in the planning and implementation of the project that ultimately led to a new state-of-the-art hospital for the town.
The new clinic will be owned by the town, which has entered into a lease and contract for services with Pines Health Services to operate the facility.
“Pines is extremely excited regarding this opportunity to provide health care services in Fort Fairfield,” said Jim Davis, chief executive officer of Pines Health Services. “The town understands the unique financial challenges faced by health care providers. Fort Fairfield’s ability to provide this facility was instrumental in assuring us that this partnership to provide quality, affordable and patient-centered health care to the residents of this community will be successful.”
The project has been approved by the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development to receive funding. Additional monies include development fees from the Fort Fairfield Residential Development Corp.’s senior citizens project, and a partnership between the town and Pines Health Services.
According to Town Manager Dan Foster, the health center will be built without affecting the community’s property taxes.
“Part of the issue for any health care provider is occupancy expense,” he said. “Our feeling was if we could take that away, we would help make this facility more financially viable for a health care provider to be in our town, and we’re willing to assume that financial responsibility to do that.
“The town has been able to come up with between $500,000-$600,000 to build this building so we can create low occupancy costs for the provider so they can provide quality health care here in Fort Fairfield while being financially viable for the them,” said Foster. “We do not want to have health care providers say to us, ‘We cannot afford to be here.’”
Foster said the health center is a culmination of four years of hard work, involving three different citizen committees and the Town Council.
“The goal has always been for the community to have an open dialogue with a health care provider regarding economically sustainable health care services to our citizens,” he said. “We focused on quality of life and how we were going to grow Fort Fairfield. You cannot grow this community without being able to meet the needs of the citizens because people are not going to live here. Health care is a critical issue for all of us and, in particular, as we get older.
“It gives me great pleasure to think that this community was willing to come together around this issue and find a way to make it work,” said Foster.
Kim Murchison, chair of the Fort Fairfield Town Council, agreed.
“We’ve put a lot of work into this, and to be part of the ground breaking is exciting because it shows that the hard work has paid off and we can guarantee our citizens all the health care that they need in town and they don’t have to travel,” she said. “Years down the road I can look back and say that I was a part of this. It’s pretty exciting.”
The 3,700-square foot building will feature four exam rooms, a physical therapy room, blood draw room, a rehab office, a behavioral health office and provider offices.
Because of the relationship between Cary Medical Center and Pines Health Services, the Kimball Community Health Center will be able to provide primary care for residents of all ages. Athletic training, and rehabilitation services (physical, occupational, speech and neuro-rehab therapy) will also be provided. In addition, through Cary’s Healthy You program, health fairs, trainings and lectures will be available.
The engineering firm B.R. Smith and Associates of Presque Isle designed the facility and A&L Construction Co. from Presque Isle has been selected as the general contractor. The total project cost is $841,835, which includes infrastructure costs, architectural and engineering, legal, pre-development costs and construction.
The health center is expected to open in June 2013.
For more information about accessing services at the Kimball Community Health Center, call Brian Martin at Pines Health Services at 498-2356.
