After a year and a half of construction, Jefferson County Health Department’s new office in Hillsboro is completed. The new building officially opened its doors on July 10.
Executive Director Steve Sikes said the department’s three-day move on July 7-9 from its longtime office at 405 Main St. to the new digs at 1515 Peach Tree Plaza Drive went smoothly.
“We coordinated with a moving company. They provided us boxes. We had a box and tag system,” he said. “They brought in some movers Monday (July 7) and packed it all up in five hours. Everything we packed, they brought over and unloaded, and then staff unpacked the boxes. A couple of things on (July 9) were moved over. Most of the furniture we bought new because our furniture was so old.”
Sikes said staff quickly settled into their new desks.
He said a few minor issues still need attention, like doors that aren’t closing correctly. Some of the chairs for the conference room are still on back-order.
The department purchased 7.75 acres of land for the new building in February 2021 for $762,953.40. Brockmiller Construction of Farmington began work on the new $9.7 million, 19,957-square-foot, one-story building in January 2024.
The old Hillsboro office remained open until the week of the move, and the Health Department’s Arnold office remained open during the moving week so county residents could still receive services.
The new Hillsboro office is more than twice the size of the former office, which was 9,810 square feet and 70 years old.
Health Department officials have said the new building was designed to meet all the department’s needs. The new facility has a clinical area with several exam rooms, including a room for those with sensory issues; a drive-up testing laboratory; blood draw stations; a large conference room for board meetings, training and events; and fenced-in parking for the agency’s fleet, which includes its mobile health care units.
Clinical Services manager Melissa Parmeley said the new office’s five patient exam rooms provide ample room for patients and medical professionals.
“We’re using these rooms for both our general clinic and our family planning clinics,” she said. “We do rotate those between here and Arnold, and we will continue to do that. All of our programs: lead, immunization, STDs, family planning, contraception – all the programs that we had before – we are able to provide here.”
Parmeley said one of her favorite parts of the new building is the drive-up area next to the clinical lab.
“If we need to meet with a patient, maybe we need to hand off TB (tuberculosis) meds and they can’t come in through our regular clinic, (or if a patient) is sick and needs COVID testing, they can pull up here and we can provide all those services underneath the awning. We can also set this up if we want to do a drive-thru flu clinic or any other types of vaccines. The space was designed for that.”
Sikes said the need for a drive-up area arose during the COVID pandemic, adding that the area provides a good way to keep infected people from entering or walking through the building.
“We also have some patients who have difficulty getting out of the car and getting into the clinic, and we have provided shots directly in the parking lot before, so this gives us a better opportunity under the awning,” Parmeley said. “We have also talked about when we do car seat installations, if it’s raining, this would be a good spot that we could provide that service. We also have a (electrical) plug right out there, so if we want one of our (mobile health) vans to provide services directly on our lot, we can plug the van in, and patients can access the vans.”
Sikes said details are still being worked out for an open house, possibly in September.
He said the Board of Trustees has not formally decided what to do about the Main Street office, but the plan has been to sell it at some point.
“But we are not there yet,” he said. “One project at a time.”