GIRARDVILLE - The Girardville Area Medical & Professional Center is still in the planning stages, but the project when completed has Geisinger Health System lining up to be its first tenant.
James B. Balk, Broomall, center project coordinator, made the announcement Monday evening at a GAMPC board meeting. The project was first announced last August.
Balk said that meetings have been held with officials from Geisinger, Schuylkill Health, Pottsville, and St. Luke's Hospital-Miners Campus, Coaldale, regarding the project.
"Geisinger became very interested, but they didn't want to infringe on other medical entities in the area, including their own facilities, such as in Frackville," Balk said. "Also, Geisinger is in some kind of agreement with Schuylkill Health, so this is why Schuylkill Health and Geisinger are working together with us."
A joint meeting of officials from both hospital systems was held in Pottsville at Schuylkill Medical Center-South Jackson Street, with Balk receiving good word from Geisinger. He said Geisinger "would like to be here by the end of August, which means have to start building by May."
Balk, who is president of the nonprofit's board of directors, is receiving no monetary benefit from the project, which is also the case with the other four board members: Vice President Joseph J. Wayne, Girardville; Administrative Secretary Rose McCarthy, Mahanoy Plane; Financial/Recording Secretary Joseph Chiaretti, Girardville, and Treasurer John Reilly, Butler Township, all of whom attended the meeting.
"The dominos are starting to fall in place, and since they're starting to fall in the right places now, we have to be able to take advantage of the situation that is there now ... The town has nothing to lose in this," Balk said, adding Geisinger requested having the building open five full week days, with shorter hours on Saturday.
"We met with highest level officials at Geisinger here in Girardville. They were impressed ..." with the site, design and cost.
As a not-for-profit, the group's plan is to lease the facility at a cost designed to maintain the building and keep a fund for emergency repairs, maintenance or upgrades.
Balk's ties to Girardville are through his grandmother on his mother's side, who came to the borough with her husband from Russia. He had visited the borough when he was young.
About five years ago, he began to visit the area, stopping at the graves of his relatives in Shenandoah Heights, which is where he met Wayne and became friends. When Balk learned there were no doctors practicing in the borough, he considered ways of remedying the situation with constructing a medical office building, setting up a local board of directors, having a building designed and finding a site.
Since August, the process has moved forward with the selection of a potential site just west of the borough municipal building and owned by the borough.
GAMPC's attorney - John Elliott of Elliott, Greanleaf and Siedzikowski Inc. of Blue Bell and Harrisburg - is working on the legal documents by which the land could be leased or purchased. No agreement has been formalized at this point.
The process of getting 501(c)3 federal nonprofit status is ongoing.
The proposed design of the building, rendered by Entech Engineering Inc., is a for a brick structure measuring 90 by 30 feet. The estimated cost for the entire project is $350,000.
"We have met with the county commissioners, who have been most helpful," said Wayne. "They're looking at ways they can assist us."
Balk said the finding of a tenant for the medical center was expected to be the hardest, but with that hurdle overcome, the next major step is fundraising. The project has a $25,000 anonymous donor for one of the three planned examination rooms, and two checks of $1,000 each were presented at the meeting by the Ancient Order of Hibernians Jack Kehoe Division 4 and the Girardville St. Patrick Day Parade Committee Inc.
Balk has also met with former U.S. Rep. Joseph Sestak, who said he will personally present the Girardville medical center idea to the President William Clinton Foundation. Balk said he has also received word from the office of U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey that the idea would be presented to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of Girardville area residents.
Balk said that with a tenant on board and other plans in place, finding additional financial support will be easier.