Open house to celebrate 20th anniversary of Community Health Facility

In planning and conversations leading up to building the Community Health Facility in 1999, leaders in Lawrence and Douglas County focused on a central location for three community health agencies to better coordinate care and public service.

On the 20th anniversary of the building’s opening, members of the public are invited to see how that initial investment still serves the community’s health needs in various ways. The original occupants – Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, and the Douglas County Visiting Nurses Association – remain the staples in the building.

An open house to celebrate this anniversary and thank the public for its investment in community health will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursday, August 8, 2019, at the second floor of the Community Health Facility, 200 Maine Street.

After a ground-breaking ceremony on October 11, 1997, to begin building the $14.1-million-dollar facility — funded by a voter-approved 1994 sales tax question — and its opening in 1999, at least 780,000 people have been directly served by this facility.

“All three agencies are totally out of space and cramped. We will have a much greater ability to provide the services we need to,” Kay Kent, the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department director from 1973 to 2006, told the Lawrence Journal-World in 1997.

The VNA moved into the facility on August 25th of 1999, and Bert Nash opened its doors on August 26th. The Health Department moved in on September 24th. A dedication ceremony for the building took place on November 13, 1999.

Following a brief ceremony, members of public are invited to take guided tours of the facility on August 8, 2019.