Marshall County Commission Green-Lights $10 Million Health Department Building | News, Sports, Jobs

The Marshall County Commission voted to maneuver forward with designing the brand new well being division constructing at Tuesday morning’s assembly. According to the presentation by Charleston-based Silling Architects, the entire mission price of the constructing, together with mission contingencies and furnishings, got here to $9,951,096. Design growth will take seven weeks, bidding is predicted to be completed by January, and building is hoped to be full by June 2024.

The new constructing will occupy the spot at present held by the well being division, the close by constructing which as soon as housed the Moundsville Journal, and a part of the car parking zone close to the Marshall County Magistrate Court. Magistrate’s parking will transfer throughout the road.

County Administrator Betsy Frohnapfel stated the growing old constructing, in-built 1955, was now not assembly the wants of the well being division. The new constructing will embody considerably more room, permitting for expanded space for storing, extra examination rooms, and higher privateness. Additionally, Frohnapfel stated, the constructing may have a extra discrete entrance, selling a way of privateness when getting into a medical workplace.

“The priorities are the medical exam rooms, the rooms for housing their medical equipment, testing supplies and samples,the sanitarian’s office, the number of exam rooms,” Frohnapfel stated. “The build was built around 1955, and it hasn’t had a major upgrade since then. We still have 24-inch doorways going into bathrooms. We still have a lobby that holds 10 people uncomfortably for a facility that does 10 times what they originally did.”

Frohnapfel stated the county has round $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding earmarked for the mission, which has been within the works for years earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic pressured it onto the backburner.

“If a positive can come out of COVID … one of them was that it caused us to take a step back and reevaluate what we needed, and a lot of that was taken into consideration here,” she stated.

Among these issues had been a bigger group room, the place testing, instructional applications or coaching, or group occasions may very well be held. A room with double doorways going through Court Avenue, too, might serve the division effectively if drive-up testing grew to become needed as soon as once more.

“Our volunteers were phenomenal – they stood out there in 80 degree days, minus-20 degree days, wind, hail, rain, sleet and snow,” she stated. “… We had a pop-up tent that blew away when the wind blew too hard. Those double doors would have ease-of-access, if we ever had to get to that point again for something.”

Misty Merinar, nursing director with the well being division, stated employees members had been very excited for the growth to match the scope of what their workplace does.

“We’re outgrowing this building because we’re offering more programs and stuff to the community,” Merinar stated. “We’re excited. We can’t wait.”