(Wheeler) – Formal groundbreaking for the new Nehalem Bay Health Center and Pharmacy took place July 20, 2024 with a crowd of nearly 100 north coast residents celebrating the beginning of construction of the 16,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility.
Ground improvements on the 1.3 acres site owned by the Nehalem Bay Health District are scheduled to begin August 1 and construction is expected to take 13 months.
Special guests at the groundbreaking ceremony included Wheeler Mayor Clif Kemp, Oregon state senator Suzanne Weber, Tillamook County Commissioner Erin Skaar, Manzanita Mayor Kathryn Stock and field representatives with U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici.
New Facility Will Allow Expanded Services
The new Health Center will replace an existing community clinic that was built in the early 1980s and has become too small to accommodate more patients and offer new services. The new Health Center will triple the size of the existing facility, have 15 exam and treatment rooms, a dental suite, x-ray, an expanded pharmacy, behavioral health facilities and a community room with teaching kitchen.
Speakers at the groundbreaking, including Health District board president Marc C. Johnson and Health Center CEO Gail Nelson, stressed that the new facility is designed to serve the north coast community far into the future with expanded services and the ability to address the needs of more patients close to where they live.
The Health District is the owner/developer of the new Health Center. The local non-profit Nehalem Bay Health Center, as it does currently, will lease the new facility and employ health care staff.
Federal Grant Jump Started the Community Effort
Senator Merkley helped jump start the project in late 2022 when he secured a $3 million federal grant to help fund construction. Health District voters, by a nearly 70% margin, then approved a general obligation bond measure in May 2023 that provides additional funding for the Health Center, as well as addressing renovations at the Nehalem Valley Care Center, the region’s only skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility. The Health District’s three-part strategic plan also envisions development of workforce housing to help address the area’s serious housing shortage, including particularly housing for health care workers.
The Oregon Legislature with the strong endorsement of Senator Weber and Representative Cyrus Javadi approved a $2 million appropriation earlier this year that further supports the effort.
Strong Support from Foundations and Individuals
Johnson, the Health District board president, said the District is grateful for financial support committed to date from a variety of Oregon Foundations, individuals and businesses.
For example the Roundhouse Foundation, a central Oregon-based foundation that supports many projects in rural Oregon, provided a grant earmarked to support construction of the new pharmacy facility. Availability of pharmacy services in rural Oregon is an issue of particular importance to the foundation, which has backed strategies to preserve and enhance those services.
The Ford Family Foundation, another Oregon foundation that assists organizations in rural Oregon, has provided grant funding for construction.
The Samuel S. Johnson Foundation (the family foundation of former north coast state senator Betsy Johnson) donated to offset construction costs, and the Health District endorsed Senator Johnson’s suggestion that the Community Room in the new facility be named in honor of a long-time health care and community advocate. That room will be christened the Leila Newhouse Salmon Community Room. Mrs. Salmon, a former Health Center board member, attended the groundbreaking.
Another recent grant came to the Health District from the Sam Wheeler Fund administered by the Oregon Community Foundation. Wheeler was a giant in the Oregon forest products industry, and his grandfather was namesake to the community of Wheeler. The new Health Center and Pharmacy is being constructed on property once owned by the Wheeler Lumber Company.
The Manzanita branch of 1st Security Bank of Washington has also contributed financially to the Health District for its projects.
Grants and Fundraising Stretches Local Bond Dollars
Johnson emphasized that while significant financial resources from a variety of sources have been made available to the Health District an emphasis has been placed on careful stewardship of the community generated bond funding. “Every dollar we have raised – and will raise – is stretching those bond dollars even farther,” Johnson said.
The District and Health Center are continuing to pursue grant funding for construction and equipment, as well as for naming opportunities related to the new Health Center.
A new “donate” feature has also been added to the Health District website: www.nehalembayhd.org.
Scott Edwards Architects designed the new Health Center. Bremik Construction is serving as the construction manager and general contractor, while the Klosh Group is serving as the District’s owner’s representative.