Health Center Wrestles Traffic Concerns

Approval of the site plan for a new building for the  Community Health Center  is before Casper City Council this evening.

Much ado about traffic flow and its potential impact to the Blackmore Road area has come up leaving Community Health Center of Central Wyoming Director, Dan Reiner, concerned with possible delay.

"First of all we're very sensitive to the concerns of the neighborhood. I've said over and over again, that we are a community health center and that, in and of itself, says we want to be community minded and sensitive."

Reiner says traffic studies indicate no significant impact. Even so, in response to neighborhood concerns, he says they realigned the exit to include signaling and have plans for a second exit onto a proposed road to the north.

The construction is funded by a nearly 12 million dollar federal grant, but Reiner says the grant requires they be open and operating by the fall of 2012.  If the plan is not approved tonight, he says the added delay will put that money at risk.

"We received 11.87 million dollars to build a brand new building that will be " state-of-the-art. We will not have any debt, which means that we don't have to pay the kind of rent that we're paying and we're able to pass on  those costs to the community by offering  affordable health care."

Last year the Community Health Center of Central Wyoming provided over 3 million dollars in uncompensated care; a 300 %  increase since 2007.

Casper City Council meets tonight at 6pm at City Hall.