Chinook clinic may move for the winter

Zach White

Sweet Medical Clinic in Chinook is planning a temporary move at the end of this year to renovate its current building.

Karen Bradway, the clinic's executive director, asked Chinook City Council at Thursday's meeting for permission to move the clinic into a residence at 1109 Ohio St., while the clinic is worked on from December to April.

Bradway said the clinic is going to use money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funds to make the building more compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act regulations.

Plans include the widening of doorways, expansion of bathrooms and a complete redesign of the radiology department to allow bigger wheelchairs into the building more easily.

"These newer wheelchairs just get bigger and bigger," Bradway said. "We can't get any wheelchairs into our radiology department."

The clinic will lower its reception desk for wheelchair use.

According to Bradway, the planned changes are so extensive that it would affect the whole building. So the clinic staff needs to move out for the three months renovations should take.

Council members told Bradway that she would need to write up what she was proposing and turn it in to city hall. Then the city's variance board would call a meeting to discuss the action.

If the move is allowed, most of the Sweet Medical staff would move into the house, while some would go to work at the clinic's satellite office in Harlem.

The Harlem office currently only has one full-time permanent employee, the receptionist, with staff coming in from Chinook Monday through Thursday.

During the changes, Harlem would have more staff and stay open during more days of the week.