A town worth rebuilding

BLUE RIVER: “We had to learn to trust that our lives in this community are worth rebuilding.” Those words from McKenzie Valley Wellness president Val Rapp helped explain that the area’s rebuilding efforts involve more than just putting up new walls. “There was not a single one of us here who could do this by ourselves,” she said. “But working together, we began to figure out who could be our allies and support and help us and others in the community.”

Rapp spoke at Saturday’s dedication of the new McKenzie River Clinic during a gathering that highlighted the community’s resilience and the return of a vital resource for residents. Like the newly rebuilt fire station and the soon-to-be-reopened O’Brien Memorial Library, the clinic isn’t merely a replacement.

The new clinic is embracing a holistic approach, melding social, economic, and environmental factors by continuing the medical, dental, and behavioral health services that were added. At the same time, Orchid Health operated out of a temporary office in Rainbow.

“This beautiful building is going to add to the core pillar of Orchid’s goal of creating the best ways to work in health care,” according to Orion Falvey, executive director of medical practice. He noted it was “the oldest rural health clinic organization in all of Oregon and oldest in the nation.”

“There’s something about organizations that have existed for several decades, multiple decades,” Falvey said. “There’s strength in that history. And, we’re excited to be closing out this chapter of the past four years and opening a new chapter about what’s to come for the future of health care.”

“We wanted to keep the warm, personal contact with patients that clinic was known for in the past, and we also wanted 21st-century health care,” Rapp said. “Orchid does that. They give their providers time with patients. They bring in new ideas, like a community health worker, telehealth, free produce, and behavioral health.”

Services like those came into play as people envisioned how the new building would function. “In fact,” she added, “our architect designed a type plug in the exterior that you would more often see in an RV park so those mobile clinics could plug into power while they were up here. So this key to success was pulling together the right team, and we found a remarkable build team to build this clinic.”

Referencing what still needs to occur was Lane County Commissioner Heather Buch. “The first thing I noticed, which I’ve noticed before, but it’s even more pronounced when you see new concrete, is that these local access roads need funding for redevelopment,” she said. Buch promised to be an advocate at the next state legislature for “infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure” because of a “chronic deficit in funding for ODOT and other county roads,”

Buch observed that “as many people know, it is not easy to build outside of a city limit. I hear you. I hear you.” She vowed to continue to work on those needs as well. “As investment for the building comes through, we need ways in which to cut red tape for permitting and structures,” she said.