Workers, supporters celebrate LCHC addition |
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Berry credited hard work by the center’s board of directors and city officials with assembling federal money, bank loans and donations still being raised to pay for the $18.8 million addition. The addition sits on a former parking lot and movie theater site. A foyer links it to the center’s original building at 269 Union St. “In 1971, my brother, Richie, and I saw ‘Planet of the Apes’ here,” recalled the city’s Economic Development and Industrial Corporation Executive Director James Cowdell on Thursday. He told more than 80 people attending Thursday’s celebration that former City Councilor Deborah Smith Walsh and Berry pushed to get the addition built. The center applied and received more than $8 million in federal Affordable Care Act and economic stimulus money to help pay to build and equip the new building. Berry said center officials and board members applied for the money in 2009 and 2010. U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-Salem) and Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers President James Hunt said center board members overcame tough competition to get the federal money. “It took creativity, drive, perseverance and political know-how,” Tierney said. Berry on Thursday said center directors are working to raise $6 million in donations to supplement the federal money as well as tax credits and bank financing that helped pay for the addition. The addition features a basement community room and enrollment office, a first-floor urgent care center and central registration as well as mammography and radiology facilities. The second-floor offers primary care and dental care and a third floor remains empty until the Center needs to play and additional expansion. The addition was constructed in 2011. The Center also runs clinics in Market Square and on Western Avenue and occupies Central Avenue office space. It also runs six school-based clinics, Berry said. “This goes beyond medical care to making people healthy their entire lives,” Board of Directors President John Feehan said Thursday. Thor Jourgensen can be reached at tjourgensen@itemlive.com.
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