Construction will begin soon on a new physician clinic adjacent to the San Juan Hospital after ground breaking ceremonies were held on December 8.

Construction crews, under the direction of Tri-Hurst / Hogan Construction, will begin work as soon as bonds are sold to help fund the project. It is expected that the Utah Community Impact Board will purchase $1,180,000 in Lease Revenue bonds this week.

Tri-Hurst is working toward a mid-October 2011 completion date for the 10,440 square foot, two-story clinic. It will feature a lobby, ten provider offices, ten examination rooms including two larger treatment rooms, and a small classroom for education programs.

See the San Juan Record website, at www.sjrnews.com, for architectural renderings of the new clinic

Eaton Architects designed the building. More than $1 million of the construction costs will be paid to local contractors and subcontractors.

Burton Black, president of the San Juan Health Services Board, said that the project has been amazing from its inception. He thanked the San Juan County Commission, county taxpayers, USDA Rural Development, the Community Impact Board and employees of the health service district for their support.

The San Juan Clinic has been housed in the San Juan Hospital for approximately ten years and conditions are crowded.

“This project will allow two of our doctors to come out of the closet,” joked Dr. Paul Reay, explaining that the offices of two physicians at the current clinic are literally in closets.

A Local Building Authority (LBA) has been set up to build the building. The health care district will lease the facility from the LBA and the lease payments will be used to pay the bonds.

The bond will be paid with an annual payment for the next 30 years at less than one percent interest. The debt payment for the project will be about $100 a day.

In the past two years, the health care district has gone through a strategic restructuring of operations to deal with the opening of the Blue Mountain Hospital in Blanding.

The restructuring has included $4.3 million in capital projects, including a new operating room suite, dietary lab expansion, a new clinic in Spanish Valley, and the new clinic in Monticello.

More than 60 percent of the $4.3 million in projects has been paid by grants, with the remaining $1.7 million from debt financing.