By JORDAN ESSOE/YachatsNews.com
WALDPORT – It’s been a long time coming, but south Lincoln County will be getting a new public healthcare clinic.
Lincoln County has purchased a former medical building in downtown Waldport to provide public health patients in the area with a more accessible alternative to driving to Newport or Lincoln City, where the only other county clinics are located.
The new clinic is designed to make a meaningful impact on the county’s ability to reach more residents, more quickly. For some people, even the distance of a half hour travel time can present a barrier to care. And as a federally qualified health center, an HHS clinic will be able to serve everybody, regardless of a patient’s insurance or ability to pay.
After a closed executive session last Wednesday to discuss the property’s price, county commissioners approved buying the building at 525 N. Bay St., where retired physician Dr. Gary Thueson used to operate a general practice. The county offered the asking price of $370,000 and the sellers accepted.
“This will be a wonderful expansion of our health and human services to south county,” board chair Claire Hall said during the public meeting.
Once upon a time there was a community health center in Yachats, but it wasn’t affiliated with the county, and it’s now been closed for many years. Since then, there have been a few stunted attempts to get a new clinic off the ground, but resources were insufficient.
HHS is the largest department in Lincoln County, and this time they have enough money in their building fund to cover the purchase and remodel. Hall told YachatsNews that HHS director Jayne Romero had been pursuing potential sites for a south county clinic for months and had considered multiple other properties before proposing this one.
“It’s really an ideal site,” Hall said. “It was originally built for a private physician’s office, so it’s only going to take minimal remodeling to be ready.”
Romero told the board the No. 1 goal of the clinic and its staff will be to provide primary care, with behavioral health, including addiction services, also being a priority.
It may be several months or longer before the doors open, but as matters progress, HHS will communicate the exact range of services that will be offered and the timeline involved in rolling them out.
“We’re excited about it,” said Waldport city manager Dann Cutter. “I think it’s going to be great.”
- Jordan Essoe is a Waldport-based freelance writer who can be reached at alseajournal@gmail.com