Falls public health site to open this fall
Niagara Region Public Health’s new facility in Niagara Falls is scheduled to open this fall.
When construction began last July at the site, located on Montrose Road across from the MacBain Community Centre, officials said it was expected to open this summer.
In an interview this week, project manager Gord Low said the summer opening was a “best guess estimate” at the time but was not “set in stone.”
He said construction has gone “very well” and while there is no specific date, the site is on pace for a fall opening.
The new facility, which is about 21,000 square feet in the plaza anchored by Lowe’s near McLeod Road, will replace the current regional public health division in Niagara Falls on Kitchener Street, which is about 10,000 square feet.
At a groundbreaking ceremony last July, officials said the new site will provide the in-house services currently offered at the Kitchener Street facility near Greater Niagara General Hospital – dental health, sexual health and limited mental-health services, as well as other services that have been dispersed throughout the city and region.
Acting medical officer of health Dr. Mustafa Hirji said public health’s vaccination clinics in Niagara Falls, for example, had to be run out of rented space.
He said the department has done the best it can with the current location, which they’ve had since 1967 (before public health was under the umbrella of the region), with existing space being maximized to allow for inspectors and desks being reconfigured to accommodate more staff.
Hirji said the new facility is in the growing south-west end of the city and will be integrated where people live and work, which will allow them to have the most impact. It will also be close to important community partners, such as the YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, and schools.
Mayor Jim Diodati said public health has “outgrown” its current site in Niagara Falls.
“It was lacking in so many ways and it was definitely far too small,” he said.
Diodati said it is important for such facilities to be located where growth is happening, which in this case is on a major arterial road, is part of the transit route and is near many services.
“They wanted a place where a lot of people were already going, that was easily accessible and near the people,” he said.
“I don’t think you can find too much better of a location than that site. At one time, Kitchener Street was a big area for residential and it’s not as much as it once was — the growth area of the city has gone south and west.”