Free Clinic hopes for help with grant application

By Sally Voth -- svoth@nvdaily.com

WOODSTOCK -- The Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to apply for $700,000 in funding for the Free Clinic expansion.
There will be a public hearing before the vote.

A couple of years ago, the Free Clinic -- which is on property behind Shenandoah Memorial Hospital -- bought the former Adonia Gardens nursing home at 124 Valley Vista Drive, doubling its space. The grant funding would pay for renovations at the new site.

According to the Board of Supervisors' proposed resolution, the clinic already has a $750,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development loan. The resolution is to authorize the county to apply for $700,000 in Virginia Community Development block grant funds.

Assistant County Administrator Mary Beth Price said Friday former county administrator Vince Poling wrote a letter two years ago to the Department of Housing and Community Development asking for a planning grant on the clinic's behalf.

The Free Clinic was approved for that $25,000 grant, Price said.

She said she and Free Clinic Executive Director Pam Murphy interviewed applicants who submitted proposals last summer, and People Inc. was selected to handle patient and medical profession surveys, prepare reports and manage the planning grant.

According to an agenda item summary, the county would apply for the $700,000 block grant, and handle payments to the Free Clinic.

"Also, because Shenandoah County will be the grantee of record, and thus the entity
responsible for the conduct of activity and provision of proposed benefits, a control mechanism must be put into place that gives the county control of the Free Clinic during the compliance period of 20 years," the summary says.

The county and the clinic would have an agreement secured by a lien.

More than 600 patients made up 2,200 medical visits -- not including those related to behavioral health, social work, nursing or testing -- to the clinic last year, according to documents from the county.

The clinic is open twice a week, but the expansion would increase this to four times a week, and hopes to later be open each week day for nearly 4,000 appointments each year.

This proposed grant application is for the "true bricks and mortar" of the Free Clinic project, Price said.