“font-family: Verdana;”>Construction is underway for the new St. Louis County Health Campus in North County. County, municipal and state officials, business leaders and supporters participated in a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, June 8 at 6065 Helen Ave. in Berkeley.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> The campus is being built by Clayco and Legacy Building Group with Forum Studio, following a competitive bid process. Bob Fritz, a Clayco vice president, helped to break ground.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley said the county is “not just updating our health care center,” but the new facility is “going to be our health headquarters as well.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> Fritz said the new structure will be 93,000 square feet in total for health services and administration. “font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>It is scheduled for completion on August 6, 2012.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>John “font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>C. Murphy Health Center “font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>closed last fall and will be torn down. Medical services provided there were temporarily moved to North Central Community Health Center and South County Health Center during construction.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>St. Louis County Department of Health Director Dr. Delores Gunn said this is the first new construction for a county health building in 50 years.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The project is backed by federal stimulus dollars, and last June the County Council approved up to $21 million in bonds for it.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Gunn said the new public health center would meet “the needs of the community” in a broad sense, providing access to birth certificates, vital records, health information and reports on restaurant inspections, as well as health care services.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“It is a truly unique way to approach the delivery of public health services that actually reflects on the 21st century,” Gunn said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Dooley and Gunn thanked supporters from the community and elected leadership in all levels of government who collaborated to make the project happen.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Margaret Donnelly, director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, sounded the same theme.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I also think it’s important to point out that we always talk about a federal, state and local partnership, and this building is being assisted in part by federal funds,” Donnelly said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Gunn said the facility will be “cutting-edge,” including in its energy use. She said it will be a LEED-certified silver building.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;”> LEED, the acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is an internationally-recognized building certification system that assesses environmental performance for site sustainability, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources and indoor environmental quality.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“We wanted to make sure that this building was sustainable, was part of the community,” Gunn said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>County Council members Hazel Erby and Mike O’Mara attended, along with state Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal and Berkeley Mayor Kyra Watson.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Watson said the health campus will bring about 300 county employees from other sites into Berkeley for work.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“All of them will be brought together under one roof and, of course, if you have more people working here, they are more apt to spend money in your city, so we will get a slight increase in revenue,” Watson said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>In the 2010 Census, Berkeley had just under 9,000 residents, a population loss of about 1,000 since 2000.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Watson said, “We’ll have more traffic, and I am hoping from this, the people will actually see what Berkeley is all about and all the good things that are going on here.”
