CAMERON—Milam County appears to be on the verge of getting an urgent care facility at the former Little River Cameron Hospital.
County Judge Steve Young announced the project Thursday at a meeting to update county leaders and Milam commissioners discussed it further in their regular session Monday.
Young said the county has received a $610,000 grant for COVID-19 related needs through the Texas Dept. of Emergency Management and has received an inquiry about placing such a facility at the former hospital.
TESTING—Young said the county would be able to use the grant for the urgent care because it would provide a much-needed “rapid response” for COVID-19 testing.
“Currently, you get tested and then have to wait a week for test results,” he said. “What do you do in that week? Do you go to work or not? How about the anxiety, worrying whether or not you have the disease? This way you get answers to those questions much quicker.”
The clinic would be under the leadership of Nurse Practitioner Danielle Janicek of Temple.
Young said in order for the urgent care facility to become a reality, the county would have to acquire ownership of the professional building at the former hospital site.
The county is already in the process of trying to acquire the entire 8.5-acre site, 50,000-square-foot hospital campus to move nine county offices from downtown Cameron.
Commissioners opened eight bids for the proposed renovation of the entire campus, on Monday, ranging from $3.1-million to $4.39-million.
Commissioners Jeff Muegge and Opey Watkins were appointed to evaluate the bids and bring them back to commissioners on June 30 for a final vote.
GRANT—Young said the county has applied for a grant which would cover the entire cost of the renovation, noting “if the grant is approved, the renovation would be done at little or no cost to the county.”
He also said even if the grant is not approved the county could borrow money but “taxes would not be used to repay the loan.”
As for the urgent care project, the $610,000 grant money must be spent, and the urgent care portion of the building renovated, by year’s end.
“That means we must get started almost immediately,” Young said.
POD—The urgent care would be the second new medical facility in Cameron this year.
Young said Thursday the medical pod—telemedicine and more—to be installed at the sheriff’s office has been shipped from Florida and is on the way to Cameron. The project had originally been planned for Rockdale.
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