Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Another new year, but still no new home
Shanna Flowers
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The state's New Year's resolution should be to make sure the Roanoke City Health Department gets a new home.
Public health director Dr. Stephanie Harper and her staff have been confined to the wire- and cable-strewn, dank cave at Eighth Street and Campbell Avenue for too long. Is it asking too much for them to be able to practice 21st-century medicine in 21st-century conditions?
The 2008 state budget includes $135,000 for the health agency to get started on moving plans that have been in the works for 10 years. For the sake of Harper, her staff of 46 and the thousands of patients they serve, 2008 should be the moving date.
The site is picked out. The health agency's new offices are at the Civic Mall on Williamson Avenue, just a few miles away miles from the current, circa 1951 building. It may as well be a world away.
Harper was polite when she told Times reporter Christina Rogers, "The project in total has had some bumps."
To say the least.
You have to wonder whether the health department has gotten jerked around for so long because it serves largely disadvantaged people whose needs are not a priority.
This is the place where many low-income youngsters get vaccines, women get family planning services and men and women receive dental care and treatment for HIV and other medical needs.
Understandably, state belt-tightening got in the way. But communications lapses also slowed down the project. One minute, the city was dragging its feet; the next time, the state was the holdup.
During the back-and-forth, the cost of moving and renovating the new building jumped substantially, forcing the need for the money in this year's budget.
Can you imagine a service that catered to the well-heeled having to put up with such delays and conditions for 10 years?
The effort to move began in 1997. Occasionally, details of the structure's inferior condition would leak out.
Anyone who has been in the building can vouch for former health director Molly O'Dell's description of "scuzzy."
At one point, the building violated health and fire codes and had a leaky roof that allowed rain to drip inside and ruin electronic equipment.
That's a shame.
Some improvements have been made, but the building remains an outdated relic of the 1950s.
No one is suggesting the health department deserves a medical Taj Mahal. But the staff and its patients deserve a safe and modern place where they can dispense and receive treatment -- without having to duck raindrops.
Shanna Flowers' column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
