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  • Architect Todd Boggess provides the Mercer County Commission with an update on plans for the construction of a new health department facility. On Monday, the Mercer County Board of Health and the Mercer Health Right administration decided that the free clinic that Health Right provides will not be a part of the new facility. Matt Christian

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July 10, 2012

New health department facility will not include free clinic

By MATT CHRISTIAN Princeton Times

BLUEFIELD — The Mercer County Board of Health sent architect Todd Boggess back to the drawing board at Monday’s meeting.

Due to costs exceeding the board’s budgetary constraints, Boggess presented the Board of Health with a choice — either remove the free Mercer Health Right clinic from construction plans or change some of the materials that would be used to construct the building.

Often confused with the Mercer County Health Department, Mercer Health Right provides a free clinic to the residents of Mercer County. Currently, located in the Professional Building with the Health Department, Mercer Health Right is a completely seperate entity.

“The thing that’s really impacting the cost are the prevailing wage laws,” Boggess said, “West Virginia is considered one of the poorest states, but we have some of the highest prevailing wages in the country.”

Neither of the choices Boggess presented seemed to appeal to the board.

Timm Boggess, president, said he wanted to make sure that the facility was going to last for at least 50 years and that using cheaper materials wasn’t going to get that done.

Though not on the board, Health Department Director Melody Rickman reminded the panel that the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd cared more about providing the needed services to the people of Mercer County.

Still, Tim Boggess requested that the County Commission and the Health Right administration get together as soon as possible to make a decision so that the project could keep moving forward.

As such, the administration of the Health Right clinic quickly made contact via phone and decided not to be a part of the new project.

Rickman stated that the group was receiving a “good deal” from Princeton Community Hospital to rent part of the St. Luke’s Professional Building in Bluefield and that the clinic’s rent would have increased at the new facility.

Also, Health Right Medical Director Kathy Wides said that Health Right was in no danger of losing its current location at the Professional Building and that the clinic did not want to stand between Mercer County and a new Health Department facility.

Rickman reminded that there would still be a clinic at the new facility. By state law, the county health department has to operate a clinic but can bill insurance for the services they provide. Mercer Health Right, on the other hand, cannot bill anyone for the services that they provide.

With that decided, Tim Boggess directed Todd Boggess to go back to the design stages to make the redesigns necessary.

Todd Boggess replied, “We’re going to have to take a step back with this. We’re going to have to go through the bidding process again because this is a change in the scope of the project.”

The architect then promised to work together with Rickman to get plans for the new facility together as quickly as possible and to provide the Mercer County Commission with an update of what the Board of Health decided.

 

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