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Rufus Jeffris
San Mateo County supervisors last week approved funding to construct a health clinic at Menlo Park's new senior center, but city officials who had requested more say it's not enough to move ahead with the project. Menlo Park last Tuesday was awarded $210,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funding to build the clinic, which would serve residents in the city's predominately low-income and minority Belle Haven neighborhood.
Many of the area's 6,000 residents and an additional 2,000 from East Palo Alto who are expected to use the proposed clinic currently must go as far as Redwood City and San Mateo to find health care they can afford.
"Our attention is focused primarily on the 8,000 visits that right now are going to San Mateo out of that area," said David Wheaton, Menlo Park's assistant city manager.
However, the amount the board of supervisors awarded was $40,000 less than the $250,000 Menlo Park had said it would need to build the clinic, Wheaton said.
Without the money, Wheaton said, Menlo Park will not begin the project. And the city won't make up the difference. Although city officials have acknowledged Belle Haven's urgent need for a convenient, affordable clinic, Wheaton said it's not the role of local government to pay for health care.
Despite the setback, the board agreed to reconsider granting Menlo Park the full amount sometime in the next three weeks, following a review it directed County Manager John Maltbie to make of the city's estimated construction costs.
In the meantime, Wheaton said he would begin exploring whether other sources of federal or private funding are available to pay for the clinic.
"I'm not giving up on this," he said.
The clinic was slated to be built in a section of the senior center currently occupied by administrative offices. The space would be converted into six examination rooms, a health education conference room, a lab and pharmacy, a waiting room and an office for the two doctors and four nurses who would staff the clinic. It would have a separate entrance from the center.
The county's health department has already set aside $600,000 to operate the clinic next year and would pay the city $32,000 annually to rent the space. The $2.6 million senior center opened in February.
Wheaton said settling for less money to construct the clinic would mean either sacrificing its quality or reducing its size. He said the city isn't prepared to accept either of those options.
"We don't want to nickel and dime it," Wheaton said. "We want a first-class building . . . we're already talking about something that's the size of a three-bedroom house that has to serve 8,000 people. It's already tight."
Meanwhile, officials at Drew Health Foundation in neighboring East Palo Alto have expressed anger with the county's decision to deny them any funding to expand their clinic, a move they contend could help serve those residents targeted by Menlo Park.1
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