State & Local Officials Celebrate Warrior Wellness Center At Adena Local School District
Article Presented By Adena Health…
A ceremonial ground-breaking brought officials from state, county, village, and township levels to Frankfort, Ohio Tuesday in preparation for construction of the $10.5 million Warrior Wellness Center located next to the Adena Local Schools’ Bostic Field football and track stadium.
The 19,000 square foot wellness center will include a newly constructed primary health clinic in addition to a pharmacy, a community wellness and activity center, and offices for behavioral health and other community-serving organizations. A walking track in the facility will provide year-round exercise opportunities for community members. On-site primary care clinical services will be supported five days per week through Adena Health and staffed with a primary care provider and support staff. The health clinic will occupy approximately 2,000 square feet in a more than 19,000-square-foot wellness center.
The new community wellness center will also include locker rooms for school athletes participating in sports at Bostic Field.
Superintendent Dr. Matt Unger told Litter Media they hope to see construction work beginning in March of 2025, with a projected completion date of April 2026. Unger said it’s possible the medical office section of the center could open as early as the Fall of 2025.
Funding for the project was made available to the community from The Appalachian Children’s Health Initiative’s $5.7 million grant, through the Ohio Department of Development. Originally, the project called for a $1.7 million local match from Adena Local Schools, but Unger said that local match now will be closer to $4 million. “That’s due to increases in costs, and we’ve all experienced that at the grocery store and every place else, and the same way too in construction. Also, there’s a few things that the State of Ohio wouldn’t fund that our community needs, and we feel are essential to the project.”
No new tax levy was needed to fund the project.
Adena Health CEO/President Jeff Graham said it has been Adena Health’s focus to keep healthcare closer to home. “This program here (Warrior Wellness Center) is not only going to take care of the athletes that we’ve done for a long time, but now the entire school and community as well.”
Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik said the Warrior Wellness Center is an example of all their community health programs that will be funded moving forward. “Every single one of these projects we fund have a collaborative effort in them. No one is doing anything on their own, which we want to reward collaboration and good work and big dreams, and these communities are delivering on that every single day.”
See our complete interviews with from Lydia Mihalik, Jeff Graham, and Dr. Matt Unger on our YouTube link below:
