Plans approved for WVU Medicine to build clinic in Franklin Township
WVU Medicine considering clinic in Greene County
Bob Niedbala/Observer-Reporter
WVU Medicine plans to construct a medical clinic on property off Murtha Drive in Franklin Township.
Bob Nidebala/Observer-Reporter
Zachary Assaro, engineer with Thrasher Engineering, presents plans Monday to members of Franklin Township Planning Commission for WVU Medicine’s proposed Greene County medical clinic.
WVU Medicine, which operates Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., along with a number of affiliated hospitals and clinics in West Virginia, is moving ahead with plans to construct a medical clinic in Greene County.
The health system presented plans Monday to Franklin Township Planning Commission for a 24,300-square-foot building that will be constructed on property adjacent to Walmart.
The center will offer primary care services and house clinics in family medicine, diagnostic imaging, cardiovascular care, orthopedics, obstetrics, gynecology and urgent care, WVU Medicine spokesman Darin Rogers said.
The clinic also will have the potential to expand to meet any of the community’s additional needs, Rogers said in a telephone interview Monday morning. Building plans presented to the planning commission Monday show the footprint of a 17,440-square-foot addition.
Rogers said the clinic will be staffed by a “core group” of physicians. Additional physicians in the health system will provide services at the site on a rotating basis, he said.
The health system has been considering establishing a clinic in Greene County for some time to serve residents who now use its facilities in Morgantown.
“Our marketing data shows a significant following for our services from people in the community,” Rogers said. “Rather than having people come here (to Morgantown), we thought we would bring the services to them.”
Work at the site is expected to begin in May, said Alan Neptune, a WVU Medicine representative, who attended Monday’s meeting. The construction is expected to take about a year to complete.
The organization is excited about expanding into Greene County, Rogers said.
“We believe we’ll be able to provide services that are needed by the community,” he said. “… It’s the right thing to do for us and the right thing to do for the community.”
The health system will construct the building on six acres of land it will purchase from Kari Resources LP.
The planning commission voted to recommend conditional approval of the plans. The plans will now be submitted to township supervisors, who could grant final conditional approval at their meeting Monday, said Steve Coss, township code officer.
Once the health system addresses all the conditions, a building permit will be granted and work can begin, Coss said.
A number of conditions were included in the township engineer’s plan review and included receipt of a driveway permit, submission of a lighting plan, approval of a storm water management plan and the granting of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.
WVU Medicine is a nonprofit corporation and is West Virginia University’s affiliated health system.
The system operates the West Virginia University School of Medicine, a 600-bed academic medical center, five community hospitals, three critical access hospitals and a children’s hospital, according to the system’s LinkedIn listing. The system is West Virginia’s largest private employer and has 15,000 employees, including more than 1,000 medical staff members.