A large group of community members, district staff and elected officials gathered in Wheeler on July 20, to break ground on the Nehalem Bay Health District’s new health center and pharmacy.
The new $12.2-million facility, scheduled for a September 2025 opening, is being supported by a $10.25-million, voter-approved bond as well as federal and state funding, and will greatly expand the district’s capacity and offerings. It is part of a project with a total budget of $15.5 million, which is also overhauling the district’s senior care facility and will see the current health center and pharmacy demolished to make way for housing.
“The vision for this facility was to create an opportunity to improve healthcare in our region with better physical facilities, including the ability to attract and retain more healthcare professionals,” said Nehalem Bay Health District (NBHD) Board Chair Marc Johnson. “More than ever, this is a celebration of what a community is capable of doing.”
Progress towards the project began in 2018, when the health district undertook a strategic plan update and identified the needs to upgrade their clinical space and add housing for district staff as top priorities.
Plans crystallized further when Tillamook County Commissioner Erin Skaar, who was then the director of Community Action Resource Enterprises (CARE) in Tillamook, identified the property in Wheeler as a potential site for a new health center and pharmacy.
Speaking at the event, Skaar said that she had been on a tour of properties that could support housing development in the county, when after visiting the current health center and pharmacy, she saw the parcel opposite Wheeler City Hall on Hospital Road. The property would require a commercial use on its first floor, but Skaar said that having participated in the strategic plan process, she thought that it could still help to advance the district’s vision.
After considering the possibility of building housing on top of a clinic on the property, the district decided instead to build a new clinic and pharmacy facility that would allow them to convert their existing property up the hill into housing.
“As a county commissioner I am always proud of our communities when they do work that is forward thinking and that will really serve our residents in the very best possible way and this project is the epitome of that work,” Skaar said.
With the site identified and purchased from a Colorado company for $260,015 in 2021, work began on building a funding package to support the project’s planning and construction, in addition to a needed overhaul of the district’s senior care facility and the demolition of the current health center to pave the way for future housing.
The project received early boosts in the form of a CARE grant for site planning and due diligence, but the big break came in 2022’s federal OMNIBUS spending bill, in which $3 million in funding was pledged to the project. A further $2 million in funding from the state followed earlier this year, as did another $500,000 from the feds.
But the lion’s share of the project’s financing was still going to need to come from district residents, and the district sought their approval of a $10.25-million bond in May 2023, receiving nearly 70% support.
Jerry Spegman, president of the board that oversees the nonprofit running the health center and pharmacy, said at the ceremony that the public’s foresight and support for a long-term, community-building project were impressive.
“Public projects like this are particularly difficult because you’re really building something for folks that aren’t even here yet, folks that haven’t been born yet, folks that haven’t moved here yet,” Spegman said. “And it’s not always easy to gain public support for something that’s going to pay dividends well into the future but the voters gave us that support by an overwhelming margin.”
Design for the project then began, with staff from the health center and pharmacy, which leases its facilities from the health district, providing feedback on the designs.
The new building will be around 16,000 square feet and contain medical and dental clinics, in addition to a pharmacy. Designed by Scott Edwards Architects, the new facility will increase the center’s number of exam rooms from six to 14 and significantly increase the pharmacy’s size and ease of access. The all-new dental suite and X-ray room will be located on the building’s second level, in addition to a meeting room and kitchen.
Bremik Construction will be serving as the construction manager general contractor for the project and the Klosh Group is also involved.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, representatives of Senator Jeff Merkley and Suzanne Bonamici read statements on behalf of the legislators, before Skaar, Spegman, Wheeler Mayor Cliff Kemp and Nehalem Bay Health Center and Pharmacy CEO Gail Nelson addressed the crowd.
Kemp offered the city’s ongoing moral support and voiced his enthusiasm for the project, while Nelson thanked voters for their support and said that her team was excited for the new facility.
“We’re grateful to you, to the Nehalem Bay voters for your support in helping us to make this new health center a reality,” Nelson said. “This community’s strong and continued support means so much to us.”
Work on the senior care facility is underway, having begun in February, and the district is awaiting results of a hazardous materials assessment at the old health center and pharmacy before moving forward on remediating concerns and demolishing the building.
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