After years of trying to establish some kind of a medical facility in Lockwood, the Lockwood School Board has made a significant step forward to building a St. Vincent Healthcare clinic – but it didn’t happen without some public opposition.
While most of the opponents said they appreciated the benefits a medical clinic would provide the community, they were concerned about a public, taxpayer funded entity like the school district entering into a contract that engages a for-profit, private business. “It needs to happen on private land, not the school’s,” declared one audience member.
For more than a decade Lockwood School trustees and administration have talked with various local medical care providers about the possibility of establishing some kind of medical facility near the school. Every proposal fell through, until St. Vincent entered the picture. Superintendent Tobin Novasio said that St. Vincent leaders were enthusiastic about serving Lockwood, a community of 8000 which has no medical service providers except for one dentist and a chiropractic office.
While there are more details to be worked out, action by the board Tuesday evening was an important step forward. In a unanimous vote, Lockwood trustees approved language that will go into a contract with Corning Companies, the local development company that St. Vincent Healthcare selected to build a $3.5 million clinic on the Lockwood School campus. Corning Companies will lease the property from Lockwood School and build the facility, which the company will then lease to St. Vincent Healthcare.
The vision is for St. Vincent to successfully operate a clinic for the next 30 to 40 years providing quality and convenient care to Lockwood students and staff and to the entire Lockwood community. “We wouldn’t be doing this,” said Lockwood Superintendent Tobin Novasio, “if we didn’t see it as primarily a benefit to the students and staff.” The concept of medical clinics being situated near, and even in, schools is a national trend, he pointed out.
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