Summit County is opening its new civic center at Kimball Junction, the PEAK Center, this fall.
Some administrators at the Summit County Department of Health are relocating offices there, freeing up space at the health department building in Round Valley.
The PEAK is replacing the nearby Richins Building, which is slated for demolition as early as next spring. But that will take away the space used by Jacky's Recovery Support Services, formerly known as Latino Behavioral Health Services.
County Manager Shayne Scott said the county must find space for Jacky’s somewhere — and Round Valley is one option, among others, the county is considering.
“We have an obligation with them, an agreement with Jacky's Recovery,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” July 28. “We can get out of that agreement if we so choose, but we currently have an agreement with them.”
People’s Health Clinic is fighting for the extra space in the Round Valley building, which it has shared with the county health department since it was built in 2009.
A former director of People’s Health John Hanrahan said the nonprofit has been meeting with county staff for months.
The situation became public when the Summit County Council allowed Hanrahan and current Executive Director Mairi Leining to make a presentation at its July 29 meeting.
Leining said their nonprofit provides — at no cost to patients — over $7 million in medical services annually on a $3.8 million donor-funded budget with the help of Intermountain Health.
“We have about 11,000 individuals who consider us their medical home, and these are the people who keep our town running,” she said.
The county leases the land from Intermountain Health, and that agreement lists People’s Health Clinic as a sublessee. The nonprofit uses about 5,000 square feet right now but is allowed to use up to 12,500 square feet.
County staff have already given People’s Health Clinic full-time access to two additional exam rooms and a conference room. It formerly shared those rooms with the health department.
The nonprofit has its eye on a 1,200-square-foot space formerly used to administer the federal Women, Infants and Children program. But that’s a space that could allow Jacky’s to expand its impact too.
“We are experiencing high levels of demand, and we need to expand,” Jacky's Executive Director Javier Alegre told KPCW. “The space that we have at Richins — we are extremely thankful and grateful. It has been a lifesaver for us and for the clients that we serve. However, it is small.”
Alegre said he feels caught in the middle between Summit County and People’s Health Clinic, but he is glad the county wants to honor their agreement.
Both he and Leining say they are advocating for their nonprofits and the people they help.
“I don't want this to be about us-versus-them,” Leining told the county council. “I think it's really a very different conversation entirely: of what our county needs in terms of healthcare expansion.”
There’s overlap in the kinds of services both nonprofits, and the county health department, provide. And there’s overlap in clientele.
People’s Health serves a greater number of people than Jacky’s and does more than just mental health. But Alegre also says Jacky’s services are culturally responsive since most of its clients and staff are Latino immigrants.
Right now, it’s for county staff to decide what to do with the extra space at Round Valley. But Intermountain Health needs to sign off if new tenants are to join the Round Valley health building.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
