Warren County has received a $9 million State Health Department grant to fund construction of a new health department.
County Executive Jimmy Haley said the county ranked highly on the state’s list for a replacement.
“We’ve had the need for a long time,” Haley said. “We had one of the oldest health departments. It was built in the 1960’s. It’s been expanded a couple of times, but we found out over the last couple of years in particularly with the COVID crisis that our facility does not meet the region’s need.”
Haley said he met with state health department officials last week discussing a possible location. Haley said the plan is to build the facility at the old National Guard Armory in McMinnville.
“I met with the health department people yesterday (Thursday) about the process and location and how the construction process would work,” Haley said.”We are really excited. We’re getting a new National Guard Armory as well, so hopefully we will be able to clear that property and build a new health department there.”
Haley said he anticipates the contract for the work to go out sometime this summer. Haley said the county wants to work with Upland Design out of Cookeville for the project.
“They designed the health department in Crossville, and we may use the same design,” Haley said. “It will make it easier and quicker and just change it a little bit.”
Haley said the county will provide about a $800,000 match to the state grant through its ARP funding. The old health department is set to become a counseling center, Haley said.
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