Katie Church, left, brought her 18-month-old son, Luke King, to the Osoyoos Public Health Centre for a routine visit last week. Here, volunteer Fran Power measures Luke’s head circumference. The health centre is slated to move to the former Sagebrush Lodge this fall. Photo by Laurena Weninger
OSOYOOS TIMES-August 12, 2009
By Laurena Weninger – Osoyoos Times
By Christmas, the former Sagebrush Lodge residential care facility will be back in use – but this time it will be providing a home base for a number of Interior Health initiatives.
“The plans are to relocate the staff and programs that are currently at the Health Centre office,” said Mark Watt, Interior Health’s director of health services for Osoyoos and Oliver.
Right now, Interior Health runs its public health programs out of a clinic at 8701 Main St. The clinic has 260 square metres and runs services including a mental health program, public health, home and community care, speech therapy, rehabilitation and chronic disease programming – and there’s just no more room.
“They are busting at the seams,” Watt said, explaining there are currently 28 staff members trying to work out of the location.
There are another 22 who need somewhere to work from.
These are staff members running programs that currently have no “home base” in Osoyoos – and need one.
There are programs that rely on meeting rooms and right now the scheduling is just too tough.
“The goal is to give everybody a bit more space.”
Sagebrush Lodge, a residential senior care facility at 4816 89th St., closed down last October.
The residents in the facility moved to Mariposa Gardens, a privately-run facility.
Next month, those involved in planning the move from the clinic to the lodge will meet with those providing the services at the clinic to find out how much space they need and for what.
They will look at the Sagebrush Lodge facility – which is 2,322 square metres – to see how much of it they will fill.
Then, they will begin to figure out what to do with the leftover portions of the lodge building.
The extra space will be leased out – but Watt said he doesn’t yet know how much, or to whom.
Pastor Phil Johnson from the Osoyoos Baptist Church has at least one idea.
At one point he had hoped to see Sagebrush Lodge space used by non-profit groups, but since then, the church has moved to the former Elks property on Hwy. 97 and has the space they need.
But there is still demand for emergency and low-income housing and Johnson thinks the rooms at Sagebrush could be converted into comfortable and safe shelter.
“We’d certainly be willing to be a part of something,” he said.
Watt said Interior Health will have planning meetings in the fall and then undertake some renovations before moving the health services into the lodge.
“We are targeting to be moved prior to the end of December.”
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