THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501060154
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 34 lines
The plan to put a new Community Health Center in an abandoned Southside grocery store building is a perfect example of the creative use of resources to accomplish several goals.
Funded by a grant from the U.S. Public Health Service, the center will serve those with too little or no health insurance. It also will improve the community by revitalizing a rundown commercial building and increase the tax revenue from the area.
The volunteer committee that has pushed and planned the health center has done exactly what consultant Ray Gindroz has recommended over and over in discussing an economic development plan for Portsmouth.
Gindroz says that when the city spends money, it should spend it in the context of a plan to multiply the benefits. For instance, if the city is going to spend $35 or $40 million to build a new high school, it should look at building a public center, not just another school. Or, if it is going to spend money on streets and drainage, it should put the money where it can do the most good for economic development. Or if it is going to move city offices, it should move them to abandoned spaces in Midtown to help revitalize that area.
The health center stands as an almost perfect example of the sort of creative thinking that gets double duty from public funds. by CNB