MORGANTOWN — Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom didn’t hold back Wednesday when discussing Milan Puskar Health Right’s long-awaited move from downtown Morgantown to Scott Avenue.
The commission is among the funding sources supporting the relocation that, per the original agreement between Health Right and the city of Morgantown, was to occur by March 31, 2023.
“I don’t care. I’ll say this publicly. Every time we get an update, it’s always two weeks or four weeks longer. This has got to stop at some point,” Bloom said, following Wednesday’s regular commission meeting.
During the meeting, Bloom read a portion of an email chain between himself, Morgantown City Manager Jamie Miller and Milan Puskar Health Right Executive Director Laura Jones.
In the email, Jones explains that there is work underway on the key card system that will secure the new facility. Further, Jones explained the process of getting the space licensed through the Office of Inspector General and Office of Health Facilities and Licensure continues.
“We are looking closely at the last week of October – first of November for the actual move,” Jones explained in the email.
Bloom called the update “extremely frustrating and disappointing.”
“This is not what the city and the county have put their money in for. These issues that are being brought up should have already been worked on,” he said.
The Health Right move out of its Spruce Street home was initiated almost exactly four years ago – during the Sept. 21, 2021 meeting of Morgantown City Council – when the city’s American Rescue Plan Act spending strategy was rolled out.
Included in the ARPA budget was $800,000 to help relocate Health Right’s facilities out of the city’s downtown by the end of March 2023.
A letter included as part of the council agenda packet said Health Right was interested in exploring the move.
Fast forward to the 2023 deadline, two significant steps were completed.
One, Health Right’s Friendship House moved out of its home at 231 Walnut St. and reopened on Don Knotts Boulevard as Friendship Community in Recovery – a facility that has since closed its doors.
Two, Health Right purchased a 6,000-square-foot building at 10 Scott Avenue, near Hazel’s House of Hope – the social services hub about four miles away from the city’s downtown – with a plan to build on an additional 3,000 square feet before relocating its free clinic.
Almost immediately, that project proved more complicated and way more expensive than anticipated.
The most recent estimate shared publicly put the cost at more than $2.2 million.
Including its initial ARPA allocation, the city has put up at least half that number. Based on the most recent numbers provided, the Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust ($550,000), Milan Puskar Foundation ($300,000) and Monongalia County Commission ($200,000) have also contributed.
Health Right’s home for the last 22 years or so, the 10,500 square-foot building at 341 Spruce St., was sold to Round Table Development in fall 2024 for $907,000 according to the Monongalia County Assessor’s Office. The nonprofit is paying rent to use that property until the move is complete.
In July, the city said it was hopeful Health Right would be relocated by the end of summer, but noted the project has experienced “delays that were beyond their control and outside their scope of work.”
Jones did not respond in time for this report.
