Possible NYFS Option–

Kevin’s Community Center Pulling Out Of Fairfield Hills Duplex Relocation

By John Voket

Citing financial constraints and a need to concentrate resources on its rapidly expanding patient base, Newtown’s local medical clinic Kevin’s Community Center (KCC) has withdrawn a plan to relocate into a renovated duplex at Fairfield Hills.

But a $500,000 state grant that was slated for renovations to prepare the vacant building to house the busy health center, which serves under and uninsured residents from Newtown and the region, may be preserved for another local agency, according to First Selectman Pat Llodra.

Mrs Llodra told The Newtown Bee this week that while the state grant had always been earmarked for a facility at Fairfield Hills that included KCC as its tenant, the language of the grant indicates it can be used for an on-campus entity that serves the “clinical needs of the community.” So she believes that grant may be transferable to Newtown Youth & Family Services (NYFS).

If NYFS finds it feasible to relocate its headquarters from near the intersection of Queen Street and Church Hill Road to the Fairfield Hills campus, Mrs Llodra thinks the same $500,000 could be applied to readying the duplex for that local human services agency.

“The state is still committed to providing funds to help build the campus and to serve the clinical needs of the community, and Newtown Youth & Family Services fits that definition,” Mrs Llodra said. “So we will see if the state is willing to hold the grant aside, which we will ask through our State Representatives DebraLee Hovey and Chris Lyddy.

“It’s really a similar use to what we had intended for Kevin’s Community Center,” the first selectman added.

The decision was long in coming for KCC and its founder and director Dr Z. Michael Taweh, but he said the need for the clinic to continue caring for the community and those who otherwise could not afford medical care was paramount. Dr Taweh said the resources that would be required to establish the clinic at the duplex location at Fairfield Hills was going to draw too much from the resources required to carry out that mission.

“It was determined to be cost prohibitive to continue operations in the same capacity at that location,” Dr Taweh said. “Even with the grant, we were looking at tripling our operating budget just to continue at the capacity we are serving now.”

The local physician, who named the clinic after his young son who died tragically in a household accident, said by conserving all the KCC resources the agency has already gathered from donations he hopes to be able to increase services while continuing to look for a permanent home.

“Our mission has not changed, and will not change,” Dr Taweh said, adding that the clinic’s current temporary home in an office complex on South Main Street also does not provide for the room required to expand clinical services and therefore increase KCC’s patient capacity.

Dr Taweh said he is hopeful his decision will allow for another agency like NYFS to take over the grant and possibly establish a viable permanent home at Fairfield Hills.

“I’m very willing to assist in any way to help preserve the grant for the town and another [qualified] agency,” Dr Taweh said. “A lot of people have been working for six years on this, and I’d hate to see the grant not used to benefit the health of the people of Newtown.”

Candice Foster, the new executive director at NYFS, said one of the first things she did after being hired by the agency a few weeks ago was to visit the duplex site at Fairfield Hills.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Ms Foster said. She said the concept of eventually clustering NYFS with other agencies like Social Services beside municipal offices and a recreation center all at Fairfield Hills is similar to what she experienced as a municipal recreation director.

Ms Foster said, however, that having just consolidated all the agency’s functions to Church Hill Road, and closing satellite offices on Mt Pleasant Road in Hawleyville has provided the agency with a centralized location in town.

“Both locations have equal strengths,” Ms Foster said. “I know the board [of directors at NYFS] is interested in exploring the possibility. And Pat [Llodra] likes the idea.”